MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

In the early 1980s Matthys’s work undergoes a remarkable change. His image constructions are no longer systematic and comprehensive. The visual narrative is divided into a composition of fragments and offers an abundance of information. Matthys appropriates images from the world around him, but also from his own work. He transforms them and returns them to us in a new context and a new form. Helicopter is an early example of this new form of composition. The structure of the work is still reminiscent of the horizontal mode of reading typical of his polaroid period. There is still a system in the arrangement, but the sequencing of the images becomes less significant and offers no real support for our understanding. As we look we zigzag from image to image, performing many small comparisons across the surface of the image. The idea of type takes shape in front of our eyes. We don’t perceive a particular helicopter, but the way in which helicopters are perceived.