Danny Matthys

1974

Photography
Materials:

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. S0386_01).

Terras dates from the period of Matthys' experimentation with photography, Polaroids and video.  Central here, are his investigations into perception and its possibilities and limitations.  He explores his physical surroundings - observing, analyzing and systematizing it.

Terras consists of a series of five black-and-white photographs in a white frame.  Presented on a horizontal line, they invite one to read from left to right, like a text.  Each of the photographs shows a table and four chairs.  It looks like the same image is being presented, albeit with minimal changes of position between each.  When we look more closely, however, we see from the wear of the chairs that these ensembles are all different.  Furthermore, the little fence in the background and the reflections in the water are each time distinctive. In comparing the individual photographs and contemplating the series as a single whole, both their similarities and their differences come to the fore.  The arrangement of the images in a series engenders new relationships, and each image is read within the context of the whole.  This coherence provides more meaning than the sum of information contained in the images separately. 

Considered purely in terms of form, Terras exhibits a dynamic rhythm, a geometric play of horizontals, verticals and diagonals, a staccato of chairs, tables, and fences.  Movement in the frozen photographic images.