Sandor Matos (1999)

light will bring forth a new fori Front image: Chapel of Light if art László Moholy-Nagy Sándor Matos completed his Masters degree in 1987 at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. In 1989, after completing a number of public commissions in Hungary, he moved to live in Australia. This exhibition represents the development in his ideas and techniques through research, experiment and exhibition over the past ten years in Australia - a unique and innovative body of work that questions the traditional form and presentation of the art object. Matos believes that the unification of art and contemporary life encourages the harmonious existence of humanity's intellect and intuition which ultimately assists in the evolution of a more balanced and perfect society. Like Moholy-Nagy and his contemporaries in the post-First World War period, Matos attempts to "foreshadow the existence of the man of the future" in response to the needs of an increasingly technological society and experiments and innovates with a synthesis of art, science and technology (or rather, its by­products - plastic, foam, etc.). Through this synthesis, a restructuring of the ideals and forms of our current cultural milieu will assist a change in perception that enables the evolution of a new and more holistic paradigm. Matos' experimentation and innovation began with painting and sculpture and led to a variety of techniques which incorporate light and the fragmentation, layering and/or multiplying of images and forms using different materials. This allows the works to be perceived as part of a continuum rather than as discrete physical entities. In this, the viewer's subjectivity is dissolved and the ensuing process of perception allows us to explore the notion of 'seeing' within a multi­dimensional framework. This notion is enhanced by the fragmentation and layering of images in his 3D-boxes (three-dimensional-boxes) and projections. Encased in a wooden frame, the 3D-boxes contain fragments of scientific and archetypal imagery inscribed on layers of glass which together form a new image. This extends the viewer's perception from a two­­dimensional reading of an image to a three-dimensional one. In the projections, on the other hand, images are dematerialised through the diffraction, refraction and interference of light through layers of bubble plastic to form a new image. The source of the original image is hidden so that the viewer experiences the 'elsewhere' of an image, making the projection an alienating experience while also being physical due to its occupation of sculptural space. Similar techniques were employed early in the twentieth century by artists like Schöffer and Moholy-Nagy in order to extend the viewer's experience of a work beyond that of passively 'seeing' an object. Matos also wishes to encourage the exploration of a multi-dimensional perceptual framework, a phenomenological context within which to question the intangibles of space and time, similar to virtual reality. Matos' sculptures are constructed out of repeated units of industrially produced forms (pieces of insulating foam), operating like 'found' objects, which are bolted together. This is a simple but effective mode of establishing new readings for ordinary objects through their re-assembling and resituating into a new context. The legacy of this practice can be traced to the anti-art ready-mades of Duchamp and his exploration of new subject matter, new media and the associative possibilities of cultural detritus. By using multiples a continuum is created, where the eye does not settle on one form but constantly passes backward and forwards so that the viewer no longer perceives the sculptures as static objects. Matos' experiments with perception are furthered in his installation using the repeated photocopied image of an electron microscope photograph like a floor/wallpaper which he floods with coloured light. By looking past the image and into the undulating pattern created, the viewer can 'see' another dimension as when looking into a stereogram. This perceptual experience is enhanced by superimposing the electron microscope image with another that appears to speed across the space, creating a sense of movement and weightlessness that reinforces the experience of being 'drawn in' to a higher dimension. Matos' works in 'Depth of Distance' invite the viewer to transgress traditional ways of seeing and relating to the art object, a reflection of his interests in perceptual change as we approach the new Millennium. This links Matos' ideas and works to artists such as his Hungarian predecessors Vasarely, Schöffer, and Moholy-Nagy, as well as artists like Naum Gabo, Duchamp and Man Ray, who lived in times of great change early in the twentieth century. In response to this change, all of them made attempts to create new ways of seeing; their experiments have since become recognised as art movements such as Constructivism, Bauhaus, Kinetic Art, Op Art, and Dada. Where these artists were fascinated by the 'machine age' and its aesthetic properties, Matos is inspired by the virtual aesthetic and Kirsten Rann © 1999 ' László Moholy-Nagy, The New Vision, pp. 16-17 physical properties of technology which have enabled us to see higher dimensions, but uses its by-products rather than the technology itself to create new ways of seeing. ê -, » 7 — ■' fi c*- h ij Green and Gold, No. 1

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