Johan van der Veen "Skulptuur bestaande uit dertig auditieve gegevens en dertig cassetterecorders"

‘The moving of 30 recording cassette decks from the downstairs space to the upstairs space, and the replaying of the recorded material in the latter space. The point of departure is the aim of realizing sculpture with conditional data. The conditional data I have used hitherto are light, sound, temperature and small - data that stand in direct relation to sensory perception. The sculptures realized so far concern the ‘presence-absence’ relation and the plasticity (three-dimensionality) of these conditional data. The question, or problem set, formulated in the sculptures emerges from this relation. An essential question to be addressed in this connection is that during perception of light, for example, space is perceived visually; the conditional datum of light allows us to see three-dimensionality. In the absence of that conditional datum, is the visual experience of a lightless condition equivalent to the visual absence of three-dimensionality? Does three-dimensionality exist in the absence of specific cases or phenomena?’ (Johan van der Veen, invitation De Appel, September 1978.)