Intro
Solo show
Jon Kessler: The Web
Swiss Institute, New York
6 March–28 April 2013
Content
Inspired by the artist’s observations while riding New York’s transit system that commuters are constantly absorbed by their handheld devices, 'The Web' puts the Apple-driven contemporary screen culture on blast. Featuring an abundance of screens and screen-like frames; an automatic, continuously-operating fabric loom; multiple cameras recording and projecting video of and onto the installation; animatronic likenesses of the artist scrolling through selfies taken in the gallery; and a corresponding, exhibition-specific app for the participation (and subsequent perversion) of the viewer, the installation expanded the artist’s practice as well as concepts of the exhibition space’s sociality.
The immersive installation remains one of Kessler’s most ambitious projects to date, and traveled to the Museum Tinguely in Basel as part of the exhibition 'Metamatic Reloaded'. 'The Web' was commissioned by the Metamatic Research Initiative; the exhibition was a natural connection to the work of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, whose kinetic sculptures refused industrial meaning and use.
