The Pop-Up Generation
Triggered by wednesday’s lecture ‘Beeldgrammatica’, The Grammar of Images at the Arnhem Mode Incubator by photographer Louise te Poele, who translated the Bliss seminar of trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort into images. I dove into my own archives for never shared pics of the exhibition The Pop-Up Generation at the Museum Of The Image (MOTI) in Breda, curated by Edelkoort.
Edelkoort shared her vision on the new (pop-up) generation of image builders. Showing that today’s boundaries of dimensions are fading. What is 2D and what 3D? What is flat, if you can fold and make it pop-up? The selection was pure eye candy. Take Wandering Territory by Anna Garforth for instance; a 3D image of polar bear printed on thin, flat cardboard, folded and put together again as a 3D model.
Or the giant mushroom created by Anthony Kleinepier just to push the imagination beyond what furniture and carpeting are usually used for. The same goes for the carpet hippo by Rodrigo Solorzano. And Issey Miyake’s collection pieces created by using a mathematical algorithm, for which he won this years Design of the Year in the category Fashion Design.
Vimeo and Book
You can no longer visit the exhibition, unfortunately. But there’s still a vimeo channel on line with a series of miniature documentaries showing the work that went into the artworks and the coming about of The Pop-Up Generation. And the book The Pop-Up Generation, Design Between Dimensions is just out as well.
Lisa Telussa
Alchemy of Beauty
This video is a beautiful introduction, at least for me, to the art work of hairstylist Bob Recine. The video shows the preparations for a commission Recine did last last December for fashion warehouse Barneys New York. In collaboration with Lady Gaga one of the always spectacular shop windows was turned into Gaga’s boudoir, constructed and decorated with hair. It’s not a standalone piece of art, Recine can look back on years of creative highs as i read on the Nowness blog, where i found this video. Recine has worked for brands brands like Chloé, Kenzo and Jil Sander and his work has framed many covers of fashion magazines such as W,
i-D, V, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue. He has partnered up with leading photographers as Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino, Irving Penn and Helmut Newton and is still going strong. These highlights have been gathered in the book Bob Recine: Alchemy of Beauty published by Freedman/Damiani that will launch this moth. I expect it to be a feast for the eyes.
Lisa Telussa
Cerveau éponge
What an appropriate interpretation of the brain by Fresh artist Suzy Lelièvre. She has mastered metamorphosing all kinds of domestic elements. Visit her website to absorb it all.
Lisa Telussa
Who’s afraid of Oriental Girls?
Is the title of a group exhibition that focuses on the work of five female artists, who all have their roots in either East Asia or South Asia. Beside their similar origin they share the Netherlands as their new residence. And it is this clash of two totally different worlds that is often subject in the work of Lee Eun Young, JiHyun Youn, Yunjoo Kwak, Monali Meher and Miyuki Okuyama, and what draws their art together.
To start with Lee Eun Young, who initiated this exhibition together with gallery Espace Enny, an ongoing quest in history she translates into poetic installations. Her search is a continuance of memories fading and merging with other observations, dreams even. Each installation consist of different elements, all telling their own story.
Nr. 5, Lee Eun Young
Monali Meher started out with performance art in Mumbai, a very uncommon art form in India at the time (1998). But after her arrival in the Netherlands in 2000, she added photography, video and installations as ways of expression.
Wrapped Bed, Monali Meher
The photographs of Miyuki Okuyama are thick with suspense. They are shot with a homemade pinhole camera, a portable camera obscura, creating blurry images that leave you guessing. Due to the technical limitation of the camera, it is not possible to photograph an exact representation of reality. So the images invite the viewer, to form an entirely subjective opinion on what he sees. The same goes for what Okuyamashoots with her toy camera. Those images are alienating as well, because they look like they have been shot with a fisheye lens. Okuyama’s work is like a protest against the both Dutch and Japanese structured way of life. Smudging and blurring up perceptions to stimulate fantasy.
Miike Port, Ohmuta, Miyuki Okuyama
Yunjoo Kwak’s work couldn’t be more explicit. As a longtime prisoner in a self created web of desired perfection, Yunjoo now criticizes that infeasible goal. With her photographs Kwak shows the traditions and customs of her Korean background symbolizing perfection, and at the same time the fickle and painful side of them. They are a silent, but powerful protest to prevailing standards that she herself more and more dares to let go of.
Lost in Desire_2, Yunjoo Kwak
The last artist is dancer JiHyun Youn, who performed at the opening of the exhibition Who’s afraid of Oriental Girls? Her dance has been recorded on video and is part of the exhibition. I couldn’t give you a more perfect reason to visit the gallery and see Youn’s footage and the work of the other artists. The best of both worlds is guaranteed!
Who’s Afraid of Oriental Girls? can still be visited until 27 November at gallery Espace Enny.
Lisa Telussa
The advantages of being a woman artist
Work without the pressure of success
You don’t have to be in shows with men.
You know your career might pick up after you are eighty
You have the reassurance that whatever art you make it will be labelled feminine.
You don’t have to undergo the embarassement of being called a genius
Guerilla Girls
Final impressions of Arnhem Mode Biennale’s main exhibition
The A. F. Vandevorst installation; a wax sculpture was lit like a candle at the beginning of the biennale. This is the end result at the final our.
All photography by Lisa Telussa. Check View PR’s Flickr page for the photo’s that didn’t make it through the cut ;)
First impressions of Arnhem Mode Biennale’s main exhibition
Great installation by Amie Dicke. A number of spray guns are hanging above this setting. Time releasing foundation (make-up) slowly covering up and changing this interior into something anonymous.
First impressions of Arnhem Mode Biennale’s main exhibition
A. F. Vandevorst installation; a wax sculpture that will will burn up like a candle by the end of the biennale.
“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.”
~John Milton
On May 22 the exhibition Lost in Paradise will open in gallery Espace Enny. This group exhibition features the work of newly ArtEZ (Institute of the Arts) graduates Mirka Farabegoli, Tina Hinderink and Surya Wit, along with paintings, drawings and objects of four already established names: Anya Janssen, Rinke Nijburg, Gerda Ten Thije and Eun Young Lee. The artists were asked to select work, some even made new work especially for the exhibition, that shows their vision and thoughts on how paradise could or should look like, not the banishment of paradise. Several of them referred to the poem Paradise Lost written in the 17th century by the English poet John Milton. This epic poem is about the great creation myth and the Old Testament. Some were drawn by nature and found inspiration there. If you want to see what the end result is, Paradise Lost can be visited till July 31.
www.espaceenny.nl
Lisa Telussa
