“From all appearances, deception has always been critical to daily survival - for human and non-human creatures alike - and, judging by its current ubiquity, there is no end in immediate sight.” - Roy Behrens in Camoupedia
BEDAZZLE is an international group exhibition that traces the artistic legacy of razzle dazzle at an appropriate location: the military heritage site of Fort Vijfhuizen. Dazzle camouflage is a geometric abstraction decoration technique, which was used primarily during the first World War to camouflage warships. The camouflage consisted of a complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colours, interrupting and intersecting each other, which made the distance and direction of the ships difficult to estimate for the enemy.
The modernist idiom of Dazzle camouflage still inspires artists today: in a direct and formal way, but also in a critical sense. Nowadays highly elaborated forms of surveillance invade our lives and we require entirely new forms of camouflage. The exhibition Bedazzle asks critical questions about identity, privacy and control in our over regulated society. The exhibition revolves around contemporary forms of Dazzle camouflage: through works with optical geometric patterns, to confuse modern technological detection systems and through military camouflage techniques.
