Catalogue Perpetuum Mobile

Peter Zegveld is not only a visual artist, but also a theatre producer, a musician and a performer. His fascination with dynamic visual art began during the nineteen-sixties when he visited the famous exhibition Bewogen Beweging (Moving Movement) in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. This is where Zegveld became acquainted with the dynamic objects of Jean Tinguely who made automatic drawings.

Experience is at the heart of Zegveld’s installations. Solid materials and clear forms are set in motion by the principles of physics, such as light, sound, air and gravity: compressed air that suddenly lifts an enormous cube into the air, a galloping horse that is projected onto a wall by a simple mechanical construction, or an iron ball the keeps on falling while pushing a tree-trunk through space.

Such ‘naive’ constructions form absurd, dream-like tableaus that appear both child-like and ominous. They are theatrical and often humorous scenes with an enormous capacity to surprise: although the underlying mechanism is often consciously exposed, the timing and the precise effect remain unpredictable. This results in the transformation of everyday objects into curious machines.