'An antidote to Artificial Intelligence'
What is necessary is of being able to perceive. After all, this is work that must be substantially perceived and is not for the superficial viewer. Danny and Daniëlle Matthys' oeuvre holds the gaze. The more one looks, the more the layers of the work reveals itself without admittedly giving away its secrets or being able to fully fathom it. The more this perception becomes a contemplation, the richer and satisfying the experience.
This is the essence of an ensemble of works that goes back to a lifelong constant of capturing the image. Matthys' oeuvre, in which images are central among all their forms and expressions, is firmly rooted in a long process in which each stage adds a new layer. The many works, the many images, are each separately part of a larger whole in which the distance between them is often negligible. Then again, some works stand alone; after all, the images themselves determine when they are finished. There, the attentive viewer senses that it is finished and forms a chapter or paragraph in itself. It transcends and dominates the long working process that preceded it.
While the body of work has clear foundations in the past, it works permanently into the future. There is no beginning or end. This too involves a thorough and attentive looking. Even more, this implies a learning to see again. The entire body of work is a plea to relearn looking as a natural process. Perception is more than looking; it is a mental process. The work exhorts one to turn away from the computer screen, which has hijacked images today, and to re-learn to appreciate images as a natural element of reality. Against the flat stratification of the Internet's computer-generated or otherwise, a new, rich, natural stratification with strong visual stimuli is proposed here.
The works themselves cannot be categorised. They are not about painting, although they do contain it, nor are they about collage or the photographic image that also lies within them and is even part of the underlying foundation. Rather, they are dynamic planes of movement in which organic and geometric forms, abstraction and figuration, blend and merge to form a whole - one image.
'Layering and substantiation'
Matthys' oeuvre is solidly grounded and is the continuation of a body of work set in motion in the late 1960s and early 1970s. History, art history, philosophy, psychology, language, travel, past and present, come together and unite in it. Energising, revising is equally part of the creative process. This reflection, in which there is evolution, takes time. Standing still is necessary to come to rest in order to gain greater insight. Several works were therefore realised over a period of several years.
Danny Matthys does not want to be a child of his time. He wants to manage time himself and not experience time as most people do. It is important not to let negativity get in the way and to keep a keenly constructive and positive attitude, to keep searching without losing your way and to keep building on the basis. Making connections offers a firm foothold in this. The more connections that can be made, the stronger and more rounded a whole becomes. Interaction and introspection, looking inward, are as important as looking outward. This steady construction of a whole provides a solid foundation that becomes ever more expansive and strong.
The artist's residence reflects the artist's oeuvre. The oldest piece is the coach house of the castle of Gentbrugge. It has foundations and bluestone cornerstones. The new part has become center and living space and also houses the studio. Characteristically, it continued to be built on a solid foundation, but equally, all architectural components flow into one another. There is no separation between life and work, and the connection with nature, under the presence of a large garden, is also maintained. This lush garden with plants, shrubs and trees from all over the world, is a source of inspiration.
Like its creators, the work is contrarian. It goes against the negative cycle of time and builds on the positive cycle. To stand there in the present, in the future, in time itself.
In the - painted - formal language, a feminine element can be discerned. This is the intervention of Daniëlle Matthys. She works further on a substructure, a structure predetermined by Danny. Both artists complement each other. Although the sculptures are by definition independent of gender, the masculine touch and the feminine touch form a cross-pollination. The work process is a natural extension of the artist couple Matthys where daily life and work are intrinsically linked.
'Matter of perspective'
Unmistakably, a desire for abstraction speaks from this work. These pictorial ensembles can therefore be seen as an imagination, a visual expression of memory's capacity for abstraction and imagination. The abstraction of memory runs like a thread through the work. But memory is also constantly subject to change of perspective. How to represent the ever-changing memory?
The fuller, the more complex the works become, the purer they become. Equally paradoxically, the more layers added, the fewer there just seem to be. Line and color dissolve each other, or enter into a symbiosis, in capturing the essence of memory. This reflects memory constantly hovering between abstraction and figuration.
Memory is constantly being erased, is in constant change, and new memories and perceptions find incessant access to it. As with memory, narrative is often secondary in image sequences. Perceptions and interpretations are naturally present, as are shifts in the image. Although the narrative with documents such as photographs and postcards, which may still be present in the substructure, comes to disappear more in favor of the image, the work never becomes abstract.
To try to represent the essence of the abstraction of memory, to try to capture it, is a multiple, layered picture. As much as memory stores and preserves information, memory functions in the moment. It is omnipresent, constantly filled with images and ideas, and often has plural perspectives simultaneously. In other words, a relentless interaction between image and abstraction takes place. In this body of work, which banishes the superficial computer-oriented stare, one must look back and reflect in the fullest sense of the word. By giving perception and human memory a central place again, it counters the ever encroaching soulless artificial intelligence. Danny Matthys' work records, but does not pass judgment. The collective image is what makes us one, not what divides us.
Some polls show that seven in 10 young people follow news primarily through social media and only less than half can recognise fake news. Critical perception and critical thinking seem more difficult than ever. At a time when everything has to be faster and when computer-based viewing is taking over everything, with artificially intelligent generated images directly threatening human memory, this body of work is refreshing and more topical than ever.
Georges Petitjean
Doctor of Art History and Anthropology