Günther Kieser was an enthusiastic collector of fairground memorabilia, ranging from three-dimensional displays to parts of rides, and he often included these motifs in his posters. Here, the entrance to a fun house (frequently the open mouth of a clown or another exaggerated figure) becomes a background for the band’s name. Fun houses are typically spaces in amusement parks in which the sense of reality is temporarily suspended. Halls of mirrors warp perspectives, moving floors throw the visitor off balance, and animatronics, lights, and other moving parts are designed to startle. This kind of disorientation was also essential to the performances of many of the psychedelic bands that emerged in San Francisco in the late 1960s; they sometimes incorporated hypnotic light shows in their productions and their fans indulged in drugs like LSD that altered their perceptions. Unlike other posters produced for bands like Jefferson Airplane in the United States that were intentionally difficult to read, Kieser’s text is exceptionally legible. This choice derived from a practical reality: psychedelic typography was far less common in Europe than in the United States and therefore fewer people would have been able to read it. Instead, he invites the audience into a world that will be distorted rather than presenting that distorted world in the advertisement.
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