The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey is not the only circus in town this March. New York native, John Kessler, premieres his three-ring act at Deitch Projects under a very different big top that trades the bright colors in for a drab military issued tent. There are no clowns, but rather G.I. Joe-like figures being dragged, beating, tortured, mutilated, and other various acts much more disturbing than grown men wearing red ball noses.

But that’s only the beginning. Kessler’s Circus is less like The Ringling Bros. and more like Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, à la The Living Theatre (if you saw their re-staging of The Brig last year, you’ll know what I mean), complete with irritating sounds and intense spot lighting. Here, you are not only the viewer, but also a direct participant. Consistent with Kessler’s modus operandi - political large-scale kinetic sculptures and video installations - his circus features a dozen or so mechanized soldier types in real time scenarios filmed through rotating surveillance cameras. The cameras provide a live feed to a wall of monitors stacked atop one another at both ends of the tent. As one walks through the mayhem, you cannot avoid being captured by the surveillance cameras, and thus, becoming part of the violent acts.

Interestingly, Kessler found inspiration for this project in the work of American artist, Alexander Calder, and his much tamer, small-scale wire circus show of the late 1920’s, mostly performed in Paris. Known as the Cirque Calder, an artistic rendition of a circus made of frail wire, cloth, and other found materials, Calder would set the stage and animate the tightrope walkers and weightlifters in front of a live crowd and for a film camera. The entire circus set is usually on display uptown at the Whitney Museum.

Unlike Calder’s version, Kessler’s Circus pulsates at a dizzying speed, and no matter how disgusted you may be, it is hard to look away. It grabs the viewer and holds them at attention. It’s almost like being inside the collective mind of all the war-torn veterans, a very frightening place to be. However, what really makes this piece so interesting is that if one studies the animated scenes, looking at what is happening in each one, then find its transmitted image on the accompanying television screen, what you see on the TV is much different from what you are seeing with your eyes. There is a reality experienced and there is a reality mediated televisually, though to clarify, here, what is on the TV looks worse than what you see in person – something I would say usually works the other way around. Kessler’s circus is one of the most profound works of art I have seen in a New York City gallery and I strongly encourage you to go down to SoHo for a visit before the circus packs up its tent and rolls out of town.

Images courtesy Deitch Projects.