The show bring the work of Paris based photographers and filmmakers to London. As part of the season Laurent Delaye Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition of work by Jean-Pierre Khazem, Philippe Durand and Ryuta Amae.
JEAN-PIERRE KHAZEM, PHILIPPE DURAND, RYUTA AMAE
The French Embassy supported by Ville de Paris and AFAA have joined forces
with London galleries in a unique collaboration to bring the work of Paris
based photographers and filmmakers to London. As part of the season Laurent
Delaye Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition of work by Jean-Pierre
Khazem, Philippe Durand and Ryuta Amae.
Jean-Pierre Khazem uses photography to examine aspects of reality. Using
models of both sexes in a variety of interior and exterior settings Khazem
employs masks to obscure the face of his subjects. This subtle intervention
gives his sitters a doll like appearance, reducing them to a semi-generic
state. For Made in Paris Laurent Delaye will be showing works from Khazem's
recent series Volume II, a suite of female nudes shot in leafy forest
glades. Suggesting a pastoral return to nature the images centre on a naked
woman wandering through lush vegetation. The images are highly evocative of
renaissance paintings where the body is often integrated into the landscape
both thematically and compositionally. Despite the natural setting, Khazem's
photographs all highlight a dialogue between the body and a more commercial
environment. Khazem operates as both an artist and advertising photographer
with work produced for Diesel, Eurostar, and Heineken amongst others. By
fusing references from fashion, product and cosmetic advertising, the artist
raises questions about the relationships that exist between the subjective
and objective world in terms of its depiction of the real.
Ryuta Amae produces large photo derived prints of architecture and landscape
environments and Laurent Delaye will be exhibiting Hypnotic, a print from
2001. Like most of Amae's works his images are made using a PC modelling
package which are output using a photographic print process. Re-creating
various scenes ranging from civic housing estates to commercial skyscraper
construction and gardens Amae's work is a meditation on the affects that
digital technology has on image making, taking concerns about the
photographic image and its ¼truth' to a new level. Hypnotic is a complex and
hyper real image of a garden water feature, complete with a mini waterfall,
rockery, and pool. By using a computer to generate his works, organic
surfaces such as rock, and water, have an unsettling appearance. Reporting
on nature at an exaggerated rate they convey a convincing sense of reality
that is slowly yet subtly undermined by its plastic synthesis. Amae's work
plays with our sense of reality, offering up new possibilities in image
making informed by radical digital technologies.
Sources (1999 Â 2000) consist of eleven different photographs of springs in
the French Alps, produced by photographer and filmmaker Philippe Durand.
Viewed from above, Durand has concentrated in particular on the vegetative
and mineral life, present in the scenes. The sunlight dancing on the water,
the pebbles shimmering like gemstones and the plants caressed by the flow of
the water evoke a meditative feeling of strolling along the riverbank. In
order to catch the transparency of the water and the sparkling of the light,
Durand employed the technique of 3D-imaging (printed on lenticular paper)
which allows the material qualities of the water to become almost tactile.
The artist regards nature as a place of the organic, one that wildly
organises itself, not only in nature, but also in the urban landscape. In
cities like Odessa, Brussels, and Paris he previously photographed flyers,
posters, graffiti and small signs in shop-windows. In these seemingly
insignificant, small but individual marks, he discovers neglected signs and
traces, within which lay buried the beauty of the transitory and the
irrational-poetic value of the "Écriture trouvée" (Found Writing). With
discrete charm Philippe Durand draws our attention to how organic life here
and there reclaims the temporarily "tamed" urban space.
SPONSORED BY POMMERY
Preview: Friday 23rd May, 2003 - 6.30 Â 9.00pm
Gallery Opening Times: Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 6pm, For press information &
images, please contact the gallery on Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7287 1546 Fax + 44
(0) 20 7287 1562
Laurent Delaye Gallery
11 Savile Row W1S 3PG UK
London