We often think of Utopia as an impossible place, a world where perfection is the governing ethos and paradise attempts to create a historical position for itself.  Utopia derives from the Greek word for 'no place', a place that is other than what we know, but which paradoxically tells us many things about the world in which we live. 

'No place' is where I go to paint - another world. There is so much to say about what I find there that I have started from the beginning, depicting the sights I saw and people I met. On my arrival I was fortunate enough to meet 'If', the youngest boy of one of the first families to find themselves in 'Up Down' - the name given to this other world, by what many believe to be divine providence. As with any new place there is a degree of uniformity to their lives. All residents wear what seem to be identical protective suits with rubber gloves and boots. The reasons for this are already beginning to develop into a highly sophisticated mythology, having its origins in the law of gravity.

Gravity in 'Up Down' is the first and greatest commandment, yet does not have quite the same implications that we are used to. The people of 'Up Down' are strictly forbidden to touch the floor. The protection their suits offer them is more cultural than pragmatic - as yet no one has knowingly ventured onto terra firma. They live on what looks like a children's playground complete with slides, swings and roundabouts. At the centre of their community is a tent, a symbol of their migration to the new world and a metaphor for their bodily protection. The tent is entered only once a year by an elected member of the community. They spend a week in meditation there before climbing the steps of a great slide. Upon descending the slide they cry the word for their god, a god whose name can only be uttered by this individual at this time each year. At all other times He/She is referred to as '****'. 

©Matthew Burrows