Jon Kessler
Jon Kessler
Lab Grant Resident
“Hey, Dieu Donné is all about water. I was always wet there in my rubber boots and apron; my hands were always full of colored gook. The floor has drains built into it and there was always a steady flow of intense colors circling around them. The pulp was like a post-Katrina, post-tsunami soup. Everything we were using had a fiber. The money, the hair, the photographs, each one of those things had a fiber with little fingers that were grasping on to the life raft. Sometimes I would press those things to flatten them down. Other times I started to really love the relief. And they were like loaded guns going into the press, I had no idea...”
— Jon Kessler, “Interview with Jon Kessler, with Tara Lynn Ruth and Rachel Gladfelter,” Lab Grant Publication Series, Dieu Donné.
About the Artist
With his chaotic kinetic installations, Jon Kessler (b. 1957, Yonkers, NY) critiques our image-obsessed, surveillance-dominated world. His machines are at once complex and lumbering, combining mechanical know-how with kitschy materials and images. Structurally complex and narratively engaging, Jon Kessler’s multimedia sculptures often deliver an emotional punch beyond their humble means. With his distinct vocabulary, Kessler taps into our all-too-real modern-day anxieties, but at the same time, spirits us away into an exciting wonderland that is ultimately uplifting. (Source: Artist’s website)
For more information, please visit their website: http://www.jonkessler.com