Elfriede Dreyer solo exhibition, Matrix, 2022

In Matrix, the idea of an ‘other’ space is presented: Simulated, embodied and different to the experienced, physical real.

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The idea of matrix is connected to simulation and illusion, and it is presented here as a construction, space or a place (mostly fictional). On one hand, matrixial space could be virtual space that we inhabit as human cyborgs; on the other hand it could be any other kind of ‘world’, dream or condition; or it could even be utopian space. Sometimes a constructed matrix can become so real that it becomes intertwined with the physical real. It is constituted by relationships, wishes, emotions and connections; it is volatile and can change from moment to moment. New things are constantly birthed there, but it also intersects and interacts with other matrixes and the physical real. And we continue to create matrixes within the matrix of time.

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On René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images (La Trahison des images, 1929), the words ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ (this is not a pipe) are written. The artist sets up play with illusionism through a representation that is not an actual pipe but an image of a pipe; so reality and certainty become questioned. Presenting an illusion of the real is probably art’s most fundamental ontology, since an image is nothing more than an illusion presented in such a way as to disguise its fictive status. Magritte‘s work brings into play the fusion of the real and illusion.