M HKA Ensembles

Photography, 34 x 40.5 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. S0322).

Danny Matthys’ oeuvre includes diverse media such as photography, installation art, video, painting, assemblage and sculpture.  In his work he reconnoiters his surrounding environment.  He explores and analyzes this milieu, in the broadest sense of the word.  He scans the physical space; he studies and systematizes it.  The laying bare of structures is, however, always more important than the aesthetic characteristics.  Matthys wishes the viewer to become aware of the complexity of our ways of seeing.  From this vantage point, the work may be seen as a formalized investigation into the process of perception. 

The piece Balken, wegberm in Dworp [Beams, roadside verge in Dworp], plays with the concepts of order and measure.  The number, as symbol for indicating a place, a unit of time or the measure of a certain quantity, occupies an important role in the oeuvre of Danny Matthys.  Beams, roadside verge in Dworp, comprises 36 photographs, just fitting on one small roll of film - similarly to the different beams that also seem to be parts of a larger whole.  Danny Matthys tries to penetrate and fathom the notion of series, and so come to an understanding of particular structures.