'PULP MACHINERIES'
– KLAAS KLOOSTERBOER
'Pulp Machineries', the first solo
exhibition of Klaas Kloosterboer
in
In the first room an empty white robotlike figure sits on the floor and is watching the
entrance of the space, apparently his forces are exhausted. Next to him, a
wooden crate lies flat on the floor, closed. In the far end of the silver room
a pair of shoes can be seen in a corner.
In a second room, a muffled sound is endlessly
repeated. Behind a curtain, printed with a finish flag pattern, a bunch of
video screens show a person wearing the white robot suit hammering with a
wooden pole on an old crate. His efforts to open the crate are in vain. In the
background pieces of fabric printed with clownesk
logos give the whole setting a more optimistic touch, although not that much.
In his more theatrical pieces Klaas Kloosterboer emphasizes the
role of the artist in (Western) society, or at least the role which one is supposed
to play being a contemporary artist and good citizen. How sincere is such an
attitude while making art? For him making art is an act of making an action, resulting
in an art piece, id est an acted art piece. In his point of view, making
art has a high degree of acted action. As long as it all happens in the studio
it is sincere and at all times a pure adventure, but outside shown to the world
eager for a next spectacle art becomes something else. Represented as a robotlike human being the artist makes use of visual tools,
which – outside of his studio - very quickly become part of seductions, which
awake attention so very close to the culture of pulp machineries we are all in.
Nevertheless, Klaas Kloosterboer
enjoys his representations of pulp mechanisms. He is unavoidably part of these
hedonistic feelings and the freedom created in this way delivers even pleasure
and enjoyment. With this practice of pulp mechanisms, it is an attempt to come
to a greater insight, but it is doomed to fail to realize an unacted art piece. For him this is drama.
KvG, May 2009