Marie Matusz, Coated in Compassion, 2022

2022

Medium

Dried giant lily pads (Victoria amazonica), thistles, organza, polyurethane foam, copperleaf, wood, steel, aluminum and tinted glass

Dimensions

100 × 200 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156250

The series “Long Ago, Tomorrow” stages sculptural scenes within glass vitrines, where Marie Matusz arranges plant-like forms, steel pedestals, and geometric elements in relation to one another to challenge the experience of seeing. Through the grey-tinted glass, the sculptural arrangements appear shielded and unapproachable, while at the same time the surrounding space is reflected in the glass surfaces. Objects, people, and architecture thus overlap, intertwining into unstable configurations that continuously reshape themselves through movement and shifting perspectives. Interior and exterior, proximity and distance, visibility and concealment become relational dimensions that reveal the mechanisms of perception. Matusz deliberately works with these spatial structures and their displacements. Her practice is grounded in a critical engagement with forms and their inherent meanings and power structures, closely linked to the architectural conditions of the exhibition space: volume, sightlines, and perspectival relations create a choreographed order in which vision is both guided and interrogated. The systematic arrangement of “Long Ago, Tomorrow”, reminiscent of early modern cabinets of curiosities or museum displays, makes the instability and construction of representation tangible, demonstrating how time, material, and structure shape perception. At the same time, the works with their glass casings evoke collective experiences of distance, alienation and the absence of direct encounter. Their reflective surfaces recall screens and the fleeting nature of perception and circulation in a world where information, commodities, emotions, and values are digitally mediated. In this context, “Long Ago, Tomorrow” becomes a projection surface for patterns of perception and their social feedback, thereby transforming into a bearer of value itself.