Sander Plug / 10 apr 08
That Sander Plug, according to himself, spends a lot of time on his designs does not show in the size of his portfolio. Nor, in fact, in the work itself, which is direct, humorous, and effective, and averse to any superfluous stylising.
In his presentation Sander at first seemed less direct, but as he went on he disclosed a varied collection of thoughts, anecdotes and insights, in alternation with witty moving pictures and passages, finishing with a ’typo song’, accompanying himself on the guitar.
He gave his doubts free rein and was not secretive about them. As he had been unable to choose the set-up of his presentation in advance, he finally opted for a series of short ones, drawing from his collection of ‘proposals for a possible lecture’, and ‘old work’, via ‘standard office presentation’ to ‘free work’, and ‘poor work’, all of them accompanied by digital slides.
On consideration, his choice not to choose was matched closely by his career, if you can call it that. Appearances are deceptive, but his design decisions seem to come about intuitively, yielding a presentation as colourful as the splendid billboard (nominated for the 2007 billboard award) for the film ‘Pretpark Nederland’. The strongly iconic image of a crush barrier, symbol of the pronounced Dutch tendency to suppress exuberance, is spray-painted in all colours of the rainbow—with real paint, not photo-shopped. Sander is a regular designer of TV guide covers for the VPRO broadcasting company. An excellent find, not recognized by many, was his Christmas issue with a Christmas manger, in which the usual attendants were replaced by delicacies carrying their names or containing their substance: Joseph Guy, Tia Maria, sheep-cheese, ox-sausage, and a pack of Camel cigarettes.
Plug is one of those rare designers for whom the distinction between advertising, graphic design and visual art does not exist. Educated at the Technical University in Delft, he offered at his own initiative his biscuit idea Lawinos (disastrous) and Orkanos (irresistible) to Bolletje. They did not go for this, however, and the idea was shelved. Between his establishment as a freelance art director, and a visual artist, he was associated for a while with advertising agency FHV/BDDO and also went back to study, this time at the Sandberg Institute.
As there is no separation between his disciplines, so is there none between his life and work—which provided an instructive aspect to the Zefir7 audience, who for the most part would be unfamiliar with the goings-on in Amsterdam darkrooms. Sander’s fascination for the darkened male world led him to do extended empirical research into the glory holes, the use of beer shelves and the narrowness of the corridors linking the room together. His fieldwork resulted in the creation of a colourful little playhouse for adult males, containing all the special attributes for anonymous pleasure, including the glory holes and beer shelves, but now in daylight, and in a museum context. Parallel to this, or perhaps diametrically opposed to it, is his festive decoration made of black leather. An Amsterdam leathershop approached by him did not see the festive dimension and saw it rather as something intended for a gay funeral.
Within his audiovisual work his short movie ‘Chocolate Hare’ attracts the attention. Whether it moves, shocks or animates is difficult to determine. The hare, maltreated with the help of an ironing-rod, an infrared lamp, and a hair-dryer, evoked furtive giggling and pitying noises from the audience. The very powerful and fairly melancholy musical accompaniment suppressed any inclination to hilarious laughter; and criticism that the film might be too confrontational for wavering youthful souls was countered by Sander with the remark that suffering happens to be part of life.
Sander was in doubt until the last moment whether he should sing his ‘typo song’ (Meg Schwarzkopf quit jynx blvd) or not. In the end he did do it, and did it well too
NEDERLANDS
bekijk de Uitnodiging
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