Selected work / Optical apparatus
Reflex 2025
A handheld optical apparatus that returns an enlarged, close-range view of the viewer’s own face.
- Medium
- Optical apparatus
- Materials
- ABS resin, aluminum, glass
- Dimensions
- W220 × H80 × D50 mm
The face fills the view
Hold Reflex close to the face and look into its two openings. The apparatus returns an enlarged view of the person doing the looking, at close range. Attention turns away from the surrounding world and towards the body that is normally behind a viewing device. The most familiar subject is encountered through an unfamiliar scale and proximity.
Recognition depends on distance
Matsuura uses this encounter to question the ease with which we recognise ourselves. A face is not approached from a detached position: the person holding the apparatus is also its subject. Within the group of viewing apparatuses, Reflex gives this reciprocal relation a compact, handheld form. Where Distance makes a landscape recede, Reflex brings the viewer’s own face into extreme proximity. The two works make distance part of what it means to look.