Human Zoo
Erik Kessels
Kesselskramer Publishing
English
Soft Cover
Color
2018
135 x 184 mm
120 pages
Erik Kessels delves into the zoological collection of the Museum of the University of Latvia, Riga, purportedly to remind us that we, as humans, are also predators. Humans collect and catalogue examples of their animal counterparts, immortalising them in death for the education and enjoyment of human generations to come. In an abrupt switch, Kessels gives human animals “a taste of their own medicine” by juxtaposing found examples of our species with those from other animal categories: arthropods, birds, butterflies, coral, fish, insects, invertebrates, mammals, and reptiles.
About the Artist
Since 1996, Erik Kessels is has been Creative Director of communications agency KesselsKramer in Amsterdam and works for national and international clients. As an artist and photography collector Kessels has published several books of his ‘collected’ images: Missing Links (1999), The Instant Men (2000), in almost every picture (2001-2013) and Wonder (2006). Since 2000, he has been an editor of the alternative photography magazine Useful Photography.
For the DVD art project Loud & Clear he worked together with artists such as Marlene Dumas and Candice Breitz. Kessels writes regular editorials for numerous international magazines. He lectured at the D&AD Presidents Lecture and at several international design conferences. He has taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture where he curated a celebration of amateurism. Kessels made and curated exhibitions such as The European Championship of Graphic Design, Graphic Detour, Loving Your Pictures, Use me Abuse me, 24HRS of Photos, Album Beauty and Mother Nature . He alsp co-curated an exhibition called From Here on together with Martin Parr, Joachim Schmid, Clement Cheroux and Joan Fontuberta.
In 2010 Kessels was awarded with the Amsterdam Prize of the Arts and in 2012 elected as the most influential creative of The Netherlands.
About the Publisher
KesselsKramer is a company which aspires to do things differently in the field of communications. KesselsKramer Publishing is an extension of this restless attitude. In images and words, it finds new ways of expressing creativity through printed matter.
