Went to Amsterdam today to visit ‘Niet Normaal‘ at the Beurs van Berlage. They crammed a lot of good art in little space, I sort of longed for a white cube….  Was particularly interested in ‘the Hostage’ by Jon Kessler, who installed a kinetic-media-video-sculpture where a number of camera’s are mounted on moving parts of a machine-like installation, giving an overload of info on the video screen.  I like the way he composes his visuals & how all the technical stuff is on the outside, accessible to all.  Hardly any sign of order, randomness seems all. Catalog promised viewers on view, this I did not see.

“While the freewheeling motion of Jean Tinguely’s motorized iron sculptures playfully ridicules the functionalism of the machine age as it comes to a close, Kessler’s ramshackle theatrical arrangement can be seen as a grotesque caricature that parodies the global diffusion of stereotypical media images in the form of a gigantic kinetic sculpture”
quote from Ludwig Seyfarth . Playground Under Surveillance found on Jon Kessler’s site.

Fun thing is – I then went to a game place opposite the Beurs to check out the gamesters life. It had a lot of similarities to the exhibition – totally different crowd, equally serious faces. The feeling of overload, of too much visual input, lights, moving stuff, sound, all screaming for attention. Judging from the look on their faces, gambling creates a lot of tension. To be broken by the sound of coins when the machine pays out, no doubt. This didn’t happen a lot in the hours I was there.