08 september 2023, Wouter van den Eijkel
Opening season '23: 4 x people and technology
Amsterdam galleries are opening their doors today for the new season. What can we expect from the more than 45 participating galleries? A popular theme appears to be technology, especially our relationship to it. And it turns out that this is a broad theme that raises quite diverse questions. For example, Meiro Koizumi questions our blind faith in technological progress, while Terry Rodgers focuses on the emotionally numbing effect of all these discoveries. Constant Dullaart shows us the possibilities, but also the shortcomings of AI, and recent graduate Julia Leyten confronts us with our excessive social media use.
Annet Gelink Gallery
Good Machine Bad Machine | Meiro Koizumi
In the video installation Good Machine Bad Machine, Meiro Koizumu links the theme of hypnosis to social reality. By hypnotising the actors, their uttering of the repeated phrases 'forgive', 'flight' and 'be a good person' has something empty and mechanical about it. In the context of the 2011 earthquakes, Koizumi questions our relationship with authority and technology and what it means to be human. Also on display is work from the Fog and Symbol series in which Koizumi uses the gesture of erasure to comment on oppression and repression.
Constant Dullaart, Sunsetting Inconsistencies, Upstream Gallery
Constant Dullaart
Sunsetting Inconsistencies, Upstream Gallery
Constant Dullaart was one of the first. He began working with AI back in 2016 when he debuted at Upstream. At the time, the images that AI could generate were anything but realistic. Only seven years later, they are difficult to distinguish from the real thing. Over that same period of time, the naivety with which we view the images has made way for suspicion. Sunsetting Inconsistencies is Dullaart's farewell to the clumsiness and ugliness of early AI.
Julia Leijten, Best of Graduates 2023, Galerie Ron Mandos, foto door Michèle Margot
Galerie Galerie Ron Mandos
Best of Graduates ‘23
Last chance to find out what’s going on in Dutch art academies with a visit to Galerie Ron Mandos. The team from Galerie Ron Mandos and curator Radek Vana have selected 25 recent graduates to exhibit. Their work is highly relevant and includes Julia Leyten's witty Instagram reels that ridicule our obsession with health and fitness, as well as more personal work, such as the moving video of Mellika Ghirah being plucked bald by five pairs of hands in 15 minutes.
Terry Rodgers, Momentary Diversion, 2021, TORCH Gallery
TORCH Gallery
Terry Rodgers | Cross Currents
For almost 20 years, Torch has been working with Terry Rodgers – known for his large, decadent performances with lots of nudity – during which time his work has only become more relevant. As technology advances and bombards us with different experiences, emotional numbing increases. The half-naked protagonists in Rodgers' work barely notice each other and cannot enjoy their possessions. Alongside the exhibition of ten new works and older work, the retrospective book The Works will also be presented during the opening.
