The Beeldenstorm––literal Dutch translation: "Image Storm"––was an outbreak of iconoclastic events in the 16th century during which fervid Protestant rioters destroyed art, furniture and relics in Catholic churches across Belgium and the Netherlands. These art destroyers were partly riling against the Catholic Church’s reverence for religious imagery, which according to some interpretations betrays the Second Commandment’s order that one shall not idolize images (Exodus 20:3). For the fevered Protestant hordes, God alone should be worshipped without being “replaced” by representational material objects. 

“Beeldenstorm Meditation” by Gideon Jacobs and Jak Ritger pulls you directly into the Dutch master Dirck van Delen’s early 17th century painting of the ransacking of a church, offering you a taste of real Protestant mob violence. The video was created as part of Jacobs’ performance piece IMAGES, premiered at EARTH in New York in April 2025. It stars a fundamentalist preacher who believes images are responsible for humanity's problems. Jak Ritger manipulates van Delen’s centuries old painting to the point that its intricate details lose their significance. Heads transform into arms and the historical Dutch garb morphs into khakis and button downs. 

Do these artificial distortions to van Delen’s work represent a subversion to the fetishistic idolatry of art objects? Does the uncanny valley effect of these visual manipulations pull us into the reality of van Delen’s scene or send us further adrift into an illusory spectacle?