Wood Panel Work 1995-1996, collage of adhesive film on wood panel.

The evolving relationship between men and machines (read: cars), is a key theme in Patrick Koster’s oeuvre. His early work, the collage works on wooden panel, and vinyl work can be interpreted as showing a merger between technology, sexuality, and death. In many of his art works, humans merge or collide with machines in a way where it is not clear whether this is experienced as comfortable or pleasant or not.

The wood panel work introduce the spectator in a world where cars and machines are the only operators. No human being is present here: car bodies are the vehicle through which emotions are expressed. Racing (Autodrome, 1995), flying (Confirm, 1995) and moving calmly and gradually from one phase to another (Osmosis, 1995) generate the finer feelings in the broad spectrum of our emotions, which in some cases leads us up via a (Misroute 1996) in a (Dead End 1996), or even worse in a frontal crash (Contraflow, 1995).