Izima Kaoru
dal 16/2/2007 al 16/3/2007
Segnalato da
16/2/2007
Izima Kaoru
f a projects, London
Artist's photographs play with our contemporary preoccupation with beauty and immortality, glamour and myth. The representation of death within the works is at once violent and utterly seductive.
Erin O'Connor wears Vivienne Westwood
f a projects and On|Off are pleased to announce a collaboration between the renowned Japanese photographer Izima Kaoru and the British model Erin O’Connor. The series – Kaoru’s first with a British model - will be launched at the fashion and art event On|Off at the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, from 12 - 15 February, and will then be on show at the London gallery. Taken on location in Kew Gardens, Erin O’Connor Wears Vivienne Westwood is a photographic series which realises O’Connor’s own fantasy of a perfect death.
Kaoru’s ongoing project, originally titled ‘landscapes with a corpse’ is internationally recognised as one of the defining oeuvres of Japanese photography of the last 20 years. As with Araki, violence and the female figure lie at the heart of Kaoru’s work, but uniquely for him each series is conceived as a collaboration between the artist and his subject. The models develop with Kaoru their own fantasy of a perfect death, which the artist then realises with them. Karoru’s photographs play with our contemporary preoccupation with beauty and immortality, glamour and myth. The representation of death within the works is at once violent and utterly seductive. Kaoru’s photographs are structured as a series of images that present a revolving perspective of the scene, imagining the soul’s last view of the body at the moment of death.
On|Off, now in its seventh season is a major programme designed to support and nurture the best emerging and established British fashion talent during London Fashion Week. With even more exhibiting designers than ever before On|Off returns to the Royal Academy, 6 Burlington Gardens. Lee Lapthorne, Director of Doll and founder of On|Off comments – “We feel very privileged to be launching Kaoru’s newest photographic series at On|Off this season. Once again it represents our commitment to showcase dynamic art, fashion and product designers during London Fashion Week.”
Erin O’Connor came to prominence in the 1990s, as fashion photography in the UK moved towards an exploration of alternative representations of beauty, epitomised in the V&A’s exhibition Imperfect Beauty. O’Connor became a household name in the UK after Channel 4 aired the documentary ‘This Model Life’ in 2003, and has modelled for numerous designers including Vivienne Westwood, Burberry and Philip Treacy, and her status as a particularly British icon was cemented in her recent appearances in the M&S campaign alongside other notable British models Twiggy, Laura Bailey and Elizabeth Jagger.
Izima Kaoru has exhibited extensively internationally since beginning the series Landscapes with a Corpse in 1993. Solo exhibitions include gallery shows in New York, Paris, Cologne, Munich, and Verona. In 2006 his work was included in the exhibitions Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin, Die Kunst zweier Städte, at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Der Contract des Photographen, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Excess, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham and Six Feet Under, Kunstmuseum Bern.
Exclusive Launch: OnlOff at The Royal Academy of Arts, 12 - 15 February 2007
f a projects
1-2 Bear Gardens - London
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 10 - 6, Saturday 12 - 5
Admission free