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Willem Besselink's works are created and developed during a set time period, and within a set space. The playful concept that underlines most of his pieces involves the artist as arbitrator and members of the public as pawns on a game board. He uses the viewers to create the work by recording their movements; registering their position within the space at certain set intervals. Whether the viewer's participation is active or passive in these incidents is irrelevant; just by being present in a designated space they are conforming to the artist's will. Even how the viewer chooses to respond is irrelevant - for any form of activity or inactivity will still produce a result, leaving the artist as arbitrator, in control. " - Text from Satchi Online. See more;
Mijn afstanden
The project ‘my distances’ is a series of a still unknown, and always growing amount of paintings. Each painting is a graphical representation of the distances that I covered per day, per type of transport, during one month. The series starts with May 2007, the first five are executed.
Lego Homines
Lego Homines is made for the presentation window at the facade of De Schouw, in wich each week another artist is invited to show a work. De Schouw is an old fashioned pub at the Witte de Withstraat, one of the most lively streets in Rotterdam, and shows a nice cross section of the people living in the city.
For Lego Homines (translated: I count the people) I have been counting the passers by in front of De Schouw for four hours on a regular tuesday afternoon. I then categorized the passers by in four categories: white men, white women, coloured men and coloured women. A distinctive colour Lego brick was assigned to each of the categories. Simply following the order in which the people came by, the window was filled with lego bricks, starting from the lower left corner, working its way up to the upper right corner.
Hardlink
The sculpture hardlink derives from the fascinating patterns of QRcodes that nowadays pop up everywhere and on anything. Generated by computers, their characteristic constellations of neutral squares are always unique one-offs. Scanning a QR Code, using a smart phone, gives direct access to specific background information on the Internet.
Hardlink is indeed no more, yet no less, than a giant QRcode, extruded into three dimensions. The code’s squares have become vertical beams; together they form a semitransparent, yet impenetrable labyrinth. As always in Willem Besselink’s oeuvre, this work focuses on the hidden beauty of rule based patterns. A scan of hardlink’s code, via the mirror above the sculpture or via the handout, will take you to the Internet, which however, instantly and unrelentingly, redirects back to the actual sculpture – it itself the display.
