Entering John Kessler’s ‘The Web’ at the Swiss Institute Gallery is much like tumbling down that rabbit hole. Yet what is most startling is the realization that we are stepping more through the looking glass than falling into Wonderland for John Kessler confronts us with an immersive experience that mimics, mocks and truly represents our own modern digital age.
As we enter the gallery we see a number of Apple MacBook Pros made of cardboard with the screens cut out in receding sizes, forming a concentric spiral leading us into the exhibit. We are being filmed as we walk, the image projected on a screen above the front desk. Thus instantly we are transported not only into the exhibition but also literally INTO the digital world that Kessler is referencing. The room itself is a complex structure made up of iPads, iPhones, computer screens, cameras, wires and other flotsam of electronic equipment. The entire space is wrapped together by a bright blue material like thick blue spider’s silk: the digital web thus ceases to be virtual but is rather before us, around us, tactile and claustrophobically real. The viewer is invited to wander through the maze of machinery, which is constantly whirring and clicking. Cameras are everywhere and images are projected all around us. Lying in hammock-like cocoons throughout the space are mannequins of Kessler’s alter ego, the Global Village Idiot: a man with shaggy grey hair and beard wearing a ‘Brooklyn’ sweatshirt. In one incarnation he holds an iPad and flips idly through images of himself. In another he holds a phone in one hand and masturbates with the other.
The effect of the exhibition is astounding and works on a multiplicity of levels. Entering through the MacBook’s creates the effect of entering a quasi-religious space, a reflection on how at times it feels as if Apple is a religion as much as it is a product. Yet within Kessler’s world the sacred becomes the perverse: our idols are our own images, our prayers are offered through iPhones and our communion is only with the mass of proliferated digital imagery. Kessler takes our world of constant inter-connectivity and unending digital dialogues and makes it literal, takes it offline: stark and moving before our eyes. Rather than a quasi-fictitious system of digital codes, the Web is made into something we can physically experience. Thus the hyper real becomes real once more and we are confronted with a startling image of ourselves: static, decrepit and locked to an iPad screen. Simultaneously we are constantly watched and recorded: the panopticon of societal judgement, control and conformity is made abundantly, eerily clear. This is indeed the world we live in: always online, always communicating and connected to our phones, computers and iPads. What Kessler does so effectively is to allow us to experience this fully, in a physical experiential sense.
Yet rather than offering a bleak, apocalyptic vision, John Kessler infuses the work with humor and irony. The brightness of the blue silk, anachronistically woven by an industrial sewing machine, the surprise of the masturbating mannequin, the invitations to participate playfully in the exhibition are all reminders of the odd, humorous and bizarre place that is the world wide web. His Global Village Idiot playfully references Marshall McLuhan’s idea of the world compacted into a ‘global village’ through constant digital communication and makes us wonder what kind of being this global digital existence has created. Thus ultimately the exhibit is enjoyable not only in the aesthetic and physical experience it provides the viewer, but also the thought, humor and insight it offers those brave enough to enter the Web.
Runs until April 28 at the Swiss Institute Gallery, 18 Wooster Street in SOHO.
— Oscar Lopez
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