Aesthetica Issue 76 by Aesthetica Magazine

Aesthetica

THE ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

www.aestheticamagazine.com

Issue 76 April / May 2017

VISIONARY FRAMEWORKS

GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

CULTURAL DISCOVERIES

Diffusion festival takes revolution as the concept for its next edition

Reforming urbanity through unique approaches to sustainable structure

Implementing new ethical fashion initiatives through African designs

Photo London reaffirms its legacy as a powerhouse for photography

UK £4.95 Europe €9.99 USA $13.49

SOCIETAL PROVOCATION

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Welcome Editor’s Note

On the Cover Sally / Emily’s compositions demonstrate a unique vision, taking inspiration from geometric shapes and modernism. Patterns, textures and intersecting structures are prevalent – each bright image is reflective of the 21st century metropolis whilst providing a visual glimpse of Japanese culture. www.sallyemily.com. (p. 120).

Cover Image: Photographer: Sally Ann & Emily May.

I’ve been consumed with the news. Following the plight of the US with an autocrat as president, Brexit and the realisation of how much big data is influencing society and shifting trends, it makes 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World seem all too relevant. It’s a stark new reality and one that I feel is carving out how this century will operate. We all fear World War III, some say it’s already happening online – but I’m not sure about that. The notion of post-truth is seeming more likely every day. Generally, I’m a positive, upbeat and resilient person, but it is a troubling time. These worries are also playing out in today’s artwork. Artists have always held a mirror up to society and right now is the moment to look. Inside this issue, we look at gender and identity politics through Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the age of the Female Gaze, which features 40 female photographers who have all grown up in the age of the selfie and considers how they are exploring self-image and the impact this is having on contemporary art. Featured photographers include Juno Calypso and Isabel Wenzel amongst others. A key question asked is how does the female gaze change when being shot by a woman? We also unpick the fashion of South Africa through the lens of a developing infrastructure, cultural heritage and ethically sourced couture. New designers are making waves in a country which traditionally isn’t known for its fashion; what does this mean for other non-fashion capitals? Diffusion photography festival returns to Cardiff with the theme of revolution this year, and it couldn’t be a better time to survey this topic. We also look at three of our favourite architects for 2017 who are responding in innovative ways to the world in which we live. In photography Feridun Akgüngör merges digital and reality to create reflective pieces whilst Thomas Wrede plays with perceptions, Hideaki Hamada continues the conversation around identity and nonconformity, Stuart Allen captures the beauty in the ordinary and Sally Ann & Emily May’s compositions reveal fleeting moments. Finally, Martin Boyce offers the Last Words from his latest show. Cherie Federico

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contents

Art 24 Societal Provocation 2017’s Diffusion Festival at Ffotogallery, Cardiff, looks at the repercussions of worldwide revolts through an unprecedented photographic display.

30 Idealised Composition Thomas Wrede reproduces various topographies, juxtaposing simulation with reality and creating the colossal through the use of miniature forms.

42 Cultural Discoveries Photo London reaffirms its status as a powerhouse for international galleries to showcase the medium through an unmissable programme of exhibitions.

56 Collective Responsibility Pioneers from the African Designer Programme raise awareness about how contemporary fashion is being produced, marketed and sold worldwide.

60 Vibrant Equilibrium New Zealand-born Laura Allard-Fleischl depicts a sense of elegance through tonal sequences which utilise unexpected angles and textural contrasts.

70 Modern Perceptions Laurence King publishes an anthology of women photographers that addresses the very notions of portraiture and the judgements that it encourages.

76 Formal Oppositions Hideaki Hamada’s series Going Against The Grain comments on non-conformity through a group of uniformed figures that defy a sense of order.

88 Urban Symmetry Bradford-based Stuart Allen accentuates the idea of an alienating metropolis through bright, popcoloured and geometrically balanced pieces.

98 Visionary Frameworks We compile a list of our top three architects who seek to reconfigure our understanding of urban life through new approaches to sustainability.

104 Redefined Environments Feridun Akgüngör’s Minimal Pure series combines architectural forms and bright expanses of sky to create dynamic, simplistic and utopian vignettes.

114 Aesthetica Art Prize Shortlisted artists from the 2017 exhibition offer a wide range of practices and themes including globalisation and the contemporary condition.

120 Sculptural Intersection Sally Ann and Emily May Gunawan’s White Tokyo series combines the modern, bold and clean lines of Japanese architecture with unique styling.

Film

Music 133 Poignant Social Commentary The Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro offers James Baldwin’s experience as a black man who was forced to grow up in segregated America.

136 Refabricating Inspiration Meadowlark’s EP Nocturnes features previously released singles that been reworked through a chiaroscuro style of live string quartet and piano.

Performance

Last Words

137 Politicised Statements Noga Erez’s new album Off The Radar responds to issues such as poverty and strife, whilst also taking aim at widespread violence against women.

140 Radical Expression Darren Johnston’s Zero Point combines science, spirituality and energy to bring together a larger commentary on human existence at the Barbican.

162 Martin Boyce Tanya Bonakdar Gallery’s, New York, showcase of Sleeping Chimneys. Dead Stars. demonstrates the artist’s interest in layering conceptual landscapes.

Aesthetica Magazine is trade marked worldwide. © Aesthetica Magazine Ltd 2017.

The Aesthetica Team: Editor: Cherie Federico Editorial Assistant: Kate Simpson Digital Content Officer: Selina Oakes Staff Writer: David Martin

Advertisement Enquiries: Jeremy Appleyard (0044) (0)844 568 2001 advertising@aestheticamagazine.com

132 Innovative Cinematography The BAFTA shorts have encouraged critical shifts in consciousness about today’s economic, racial climate, from the refugee crisis to consumption.

Advertising Coordinator: Jeremy Appleyard Marketing Coordinator: Alexandra Beresford Artists’ Directory Coordinator: Katherine Smira

Artists’ Directory Enquiries: Katherine Smira (0044) (0)844 568 2001 directory@aestheticamagazine.com

Published by Cherie Federico and Dale Donley. Aesthetica Magazine PO Box 371, York, YO23 1WL, UK (0044) (0)844 568 2001 Newstrade Distribution: Warners Group Publications plc. Gallery & Specialist Distribution: Central Books. Printed by Warners Midlands plc.

Production Director: Dale Donley Designer: Rob Cheung Administrator: Cassandra Weston Administrative Assistant: Patrick Webster Technical Administrator: Alex Tobin Festival Assistant: Eleanor Turner Project Worker: Sophie Lake Intern: Lucy Sara-Kelly Contributors: Bryony Byrne, Niamh Coghlan, Colin Herd, Chloe Hodge, Regina Papachlimitzou, Charlotte R.A., Beth Webb. Reviewers: Matilda Bathurst, Ruby Beesley, Kyle Bryony, Kim Connerton, Tony Earnshaw, Anna Feintuck, Rubén Cervantes Garrido, Erik Martiny, Daniel Potts, Paul Risker, Matt Swain.

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Cornelia Parker, Neither From Nor Towards, 1992. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London. © the artist.

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The Hierarchy of Materialism [RE]CONSTRUCT Foundational assumptions about the permanence and materiality of structures are called into question in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s latest exhibition. It considers the boundaries between sculpture and the built environment, a fertile ground for artistic inquiry, and one which forces us to actively think about the constructions in which much of daily life takes place. [Re]construct, presented in the 18th century Chapel space of the YSP near Wakefield, demonstrates the myriad ways in which artists have incorporated the materials and designs of architecture, through works which have been selected by the curators from the Arts Council Collection. Viewers are able to discover bricks made of wax, wall plugs crafted from onyx, reassembled ruins and bodies painted to look like stone. Other objects disappear into the fabric of the building, creating unsettling effects. Positioned centrally within the Chapel’s nave, Cornelia Parker’s signature suspended piece Neither From Nor Towards is made from weathered bricks reclaimed from a row of houses destroyed when they slipped into the sea on the south-east coast due to erosion. This natural process of decomposition continued as the bricks were further pounded and shaped by the action of the waves. The bricks are reassembled to form the simplified box-house shape of a child’s drawing, complete with pitched roof. Hinting at the previous life of the material, the sculpture becomes a type of resurrection or ghost of its former self.

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Work No.135 by Martin Creed, meanwhile, grows like an “Viewers are able to organic mass from the Chapel wall, finished in the same discover bricks made material and painted white so that it appears simultaneously of wax, wall plugs at home and incongruous. By interrupting the viewer’s crafted from onyx, expectations, it suggests an animate life within the static walls. reassembled ruins In A hole in a bag of nerves, Alex Chinneck invokes the idea and bodies painted to of transience through the use of wax bricks: where one would look like stone. Other expect the tough, durable materials needed for building, objects disappear there is instead an entirely malleable substance that into the fabric of the changes state even from the heat of touch. Emphasising its building, creating unsuitability for construction, a circle at the centre of the wall unsettling effects.” has been melted, resulting in cascades of wax. Like Parker’s brick house, it captures a moment that is frozen in time. Susan Collis’s Untitled (Rawl Plugs) confounds expectation by masquerading as a set of everyday wall fixings that appear to have been abandoned, possibly after a picture or shelf has been removed. In fact, these seemingly mundane and inexpensive objects have been carefully crafted from semi-precious stone. This invites the audience to consider the hierarchy of materials and encourages them to look at and analyse the surrounding environment with greater care. Also featuring in the YSP’s selection at the Chapel are Yorkshire Sculpture Park. works by Claire Barclay, Anya Gallaccio, Lucy Gunning, 1 April - 25 June. Sonya Hanney and Adam Dade, Denis Masi, Alex Pain, Nina Saunders, Emily Speed, John Wood and Paul Harrison. www.ysp.co.uk

Interdisciplinary Exploration ARCHITECTURE AS METAPHOR location, the former border between the East and the West. “Material forms Also displayed is work by Phyllida Barlow (b. 1944), who have been seized later this year will represent the UK at the 2017 Venice upon by artists as Biennale. Her signature style, creating complex installations physical expressions of sculptural forms, is defined by a vocabulary of everyday of cultural, social construction materials such as plywood, cement and paint. and political change, Other exhibiting practitioners include Italy’s Maurizio and they reveal Anzeri, who creates architectural interventions by sewing the psychological, directly into found vintage photographs, the contrast historical and suggesting a dimension where history and future converge. political forces which Rob Voerman’s art depicts fictional communities occupying drive the developing a post-apocalyptic dystopia, whether in remote locations urban landscape.” or existing cityscapes. Wolfgang Schlegel, meanwhile, exhibits fragments of concrete stairways, rusted railings and scaffolding, the hidden wonders of everyday construction. The full line-up of artists taking part ranges from longestablished names to those in mid-career, and includes Rachel Whiteread, Dieter Roth, Fabian Peake, Arturo Di Stefano, Lucy Gunning, Prue Waller, Ulrich Jansen and Terry Smith, as well as sculptor and co-curator Steve Johnson. The late Tony Carter is also included, an influential figure and mentor to many of the other exhibitors. As well as his Griffin Gallery, London. own artistic career, Carter spent 16 years as Principal of Until 21 April. the City & Guilds Art School. Several of his sculptures are displayed by kind permission of his widow, Wendy Smith. www.griffingallery.co.uk

Rob Voerman, Unité, 2014. Archival pigment print. Courtesy of Upstream Gallery.

The interplay between art and architecture is reciprocal and intrinsic to the history of both disciplines. Whether through striking public collaborations that stretch limits and conventions, or the allure of structures as subjects for photography, film, painting or sculpture, the topic is vast. Co-curators at Griffin Gallery Steve Johnson and Becca Pelly-Fry have chosen to address this harmonious relationship through a group exhibition of 30 artists at the London venue, whose varied approaches sketch out the possibilities afforded by interdisciplinary collaboration and mutual inspiration. The title of the show reflects the influence of architectural imagery on contemporary art – both the way in which material forms have been seized upon by artists as physical expressions of cultural, social and political change, and how they reveal the psychological, historical and political forces which drive the developing urban landscape. One of the major names featured is Turner Prize winner Richard Deacon (b. 1949), who has recently collaborated with Serbian sculptor Mrdjan Bajic (b. 1957) on designing a snake-like bridge in Kalemegdan Park in Belgrade, Serbia. The duo, who represented Wales and Serbia respectively at the 2007 Venice Biennale, showcase some never-beforeseen designs exclusively for the Griffin Gallery. The bridge, which runs from the Kalemegdan Fortress, adds a new landmark structure to the city at an important and charged

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Roger Mayne, Park Hill Estate, Sheffield, 1961. © Roger Mayne / Mary Evans Picture Library. Courtesy of the Mary Evans Picture Library.

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Post-Conflict Documentation ROGER MAYNE Self-taught photographer Roger Mayne (1929-2014) spent his early career following an individual path, rather than being associated with any particular aesthetic school. Moving to London in 1954, he worked for a range of magazines and newspapers and for the BBC, moving in diverse circles and meeting painters, sculptors, artists and writers of the day, all of whom informed and enlivened his developing style and involved him in contemporary discourse about the direction of the art form. A notable early influence was the St Ives scene of Terry Frost, Roger Hilton and Patrick Heron, which had an enduring impact on his life and work, encouraging Mayne to experiment with large prints and installation-based exhibitions, at a time when there was little or no precedent within photography, and helped to shift the discipline to a position within the wider arts. He used many figures within the St Ives group as his subject matter during the 1950s. It was in the late 1950s that Mayne struck upon the project and the style that would come to define him in the public eye – his studies of the street life of Southam Street in London. The area, on the fringes of now-prosperous Notting Hill, which he documented between 1956 and 1961, was largely demolished in 1969 to make way for the Trellick Tower. Novelist Colin MacInnes asked Mayne to contribute the cover shot for Absolute Beginners (1959), also set in the area, and the images were to reach a new audience in the 1990s

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when Morrissey used them as record cover artwork and stage “Mayne’s black and backdrops. Mayne’s black and white pictures capture the white pictures capture deprivation and squalor of post-war inner-city Britain and the the deprivation of lively street life, notably the gangs of children seen running post-war innerwild and playing amidst the hustle and bustle. West Indians city Britain and and Teddy Boys rub shoulders on the street, capturing the the lively street themes of migration and burgeoning youth culture. One life. West Indians of the slum children was the future Labour politician Alan and Teddy Boys Johnson, who would go on to serve as UK Home Secretary. rub shoulders on the The Photographers’ Gallery presents the first major London street, capturing the exhibition of Mayne’s work since 1999, and, aside from themes of migration the Southam Street series, it features less well-known work and youth culture.” from outside the capital. These include images from the artist’s young adulthood spent in Leeds. The early pictures of street life here chart the beginnings of Mayne’s gradual move towards realism. Also presented are later works which continue to present the lives of ordinary working people with empathy and dignity. The urban landscape is put under the lens, alongside the residents of Sheffield’s Park Hill flats in commissions from 1961 to 1965, and the lives of workers at the Raleigh Cycles factory in Nottingham (1964). The Photographers’ Restaged for the first time since 1964 is The British at Leisure. Gallery, London. Commissioned by architect Theo Crosby for the Milan Until 11 June. Triennale, it features 310 colour images projected onto five screens and a commissioned jazz score by Johnny Scott. thephotographersgallery.org.uk

Investigation through Archive THE FUTURE REMAINS spectacle in front of an audience of 100,000. The historical “The sequence of images on show at Calvert 22 reveal some of the Palace’s political and social interiors and surroundings in the aftermath of the events. upheavals which The highlight of the programme is the first UK solo show unfolded throughout of work by prominent Moscow Conceptualist Dmitri Prigov that turbulent year (1940-2007). Under the title Theatre of Revolutionary Action, have been endlessly the exhibition, from 12 October to 17 December, takes mythologised and Prigov’s view of performance as art as its key note to draw contested, with some together his genre-defying works under the idea of theatre. questioning their very Prigov was a dissident for much of the Soviet era, his vast status of ‘revolution.’” output of poetry being published unofficially as Samizdat, and he was even briefly arrested and institutionalised in a psychiatric hospital by the KGB after a street performance for handing out poetry to passers-by. His art began to receive official recognition in the then USSR from 1987, and ranges across drawing, installation, video work, poetry (some inscribed on tin cans) and plays. It has been described by critics as possessing a new sense of sincerity, as opposed to the sense of the absurd adopted in much late-Soviet art. Russian director Yuri Muravitsky presents a new version of Prigov’s Revolt, which speaks directly to the themes of The Calvert 22 Foundation, Future Remains. Somewhere between a play, performance London. and interactive artwork, Revolt addresses the malaise of the Until 17 December. 1980s, when the fervour of 1917 had lost any meaning, and the terror inevitably inherent in revolutionary transformation. www.calvert22.org

Archival image of the Winter Palace. © The State Hermitage Museum. Photo: Yuri Molodkovets.

In the centenary year of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the “ten days that shook the world”, the Calvert 22 Foundation, London, which is dedicated to promoting the culture of Russia and Eastern Europe, teams up with St Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum as its major partner for The Future Remains. They present a season of events which reflects upon the continuing impacts of this major turning point in history. The sequence of political and social upheavals which unfolded throughout that turbulent year have been endlessly mythologised and contested, with some questioning their very status as a “revolution.” The exhibition takes an interdisciplinary approach, with events and discussions addressing the many interpretations of the uprising and its ongoing impacts for the modern world. Other collaborators are European University at St Petersburg and UCL SSEES. The State Hermitage Museum opens up its photographic archives to reveal its own role in unfolding history. As the Winter Palace, former residence of the Tsar and subsequently the headquarters of Kerensky’s Provisional Government after the fall of the Tsar in the Revolution of February 1917, it became the centre of events the following October, when a Bolshevik insurrection seized the palace and toppled the government. The actual storming of the Winter Palace was largely bloodless, though, in an act of public performance art as propaganda, it was restaged in 1920 as a myth-making

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David Hepher, Camberwell Flats by Night, 1983. © David Hepher, Courtesy of Flowers Gallery London and New York.

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Aesthetics of Degeneration DAVID HEPHER Many artistic practitioners have returned to one single focus regeneration at present. The Surrey-born artist’s fascination “Though Hepher or location as a leitmotif that runs throughout their career. with high-rises, however, began with another Brutalist land- considers the role of But only for David Hepher (b. 1935) have the high-rise mark, the Park Hill Flats in Sheffield – structures now being the artist as being one blocks of South London provided the sole material for more renovated into a fashionable address in a new vogue for of bearing witness, than 40 years of work. Though he considers the role of the urban living. Hepher’s family moved to the South Yorkshire rather than taking up artist as being one of bearing witness, rather than taking up city in the 1950s, when his clergyman father became a vicar any kind of didactic any kind of didactic stance on the subject, it is inevitable that there, and he watched the construction of the megalithic stance on the subject, it is inevitable that the passage of history and the shifting of critical currents in blocks on the site of slum clearances (1957-1961). Flowers Gallery’s major retrospective sees the blocks of the the passage of history the world of contemporary art brings changing modes of interpretation and understanding to the constant, moving Aylesbury estate refracted through modes that shift between brings changing modes it on from being a celebration of utopian modernism to futuristic and nostalgic, utopian and entropic. The London of interpretation.” show coincides with the UK launch of a new monograph by mourning a failed vision of yesterday’s future. Indeed, for much this time, a single South London estate critic, author and documentary filmmaker Ben Lewis, Grain has been his primary focus. The giant grey slab blocks of Of Concrete. It presents Hepher’s oeuvre as a “British realist the Aylesbury Estate in Walworth, some 14 storeys high, response to modernism”, and suggests his adoption of the were built between 1963 and 1977, close to where the Brit- tower block as a theme is a way of bringing a “readymade” elish painter lives and works. The area’s reputation deteriorated ement into the practice of painting. He charts a prolific career over the decades due to social problems, and physical prob- from the 1950s to the present day, tracing a path that begins lems with the buildings. It was the location which Tony Blair in an era highly suspicious of figurative painting, through to chose as being emblematic of Thatcherite urban decay for the recent re-evaluation of post-war British art. Lewis aligns his first speech as Prime Minister in 1997. Hepher can be the work with the critical discourses surrounding the “end seen as a part of a generation of artists who grew up with of painting” and with conceptual and minimalist strategies Flowers Gallery, London. the utopian ambitions of post-war modernism and lived to throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Containing more than Until 13 May. mourn their passing in their mature work. The estate is still 250 colour illustrations, it is the largest book to have been home to some 7,500 people, though it is undergoing a major published on Hepher’s extensive and individual practice. www.flowersgallery.com

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New Geographical Horizons AUTOPHOTO of holidays on the Riviera and strolls along the promenade. “The motor vehicle By contrast, Lee Friedlander (b. 1934) works primarily was not only a in black and white to consider the “social landscape” of new object for the an urban world that has been shaped by an automobile photographer’s lens to culture. Mainly employing Leica hand-held 35mm cameras, study but brought with the American practitioner captures the look of modern life it a transformation through his images of store-front reflections, and structures of the landscapes framed by fences and barriers, as well as posters and signs. through which it A completely different approach is represented by Brazilian travelled – the distinct artist Rosângela Rennó (b. 1962), who primarily appropriates, architecture and transforms and re-contextualises existing archival images of geometry of roadways.” everyday events, and finds novel and politically charged ways to present them, often shifting the emphasis of the images onto marginalised figures and groups within them. Combining Eastern and Western traditions, multi-award winning Yasuhiro Ishimoto (1921-2012), first began to learn photography when his Japanese-American family was interned following Pearl Harbor, in a prison camp in Colorado. He spent his subsequent career fascinated by structures and by the street life of Chicago and Tokyo. Fondation Cartier’s exhibition includes a series of car models that cast a fresh eye on the history of design, created Fondation Cartier, Paris. specifically for the show by French artist Alain Bublex. These 20 April - 24 September. are accompanied by a catalogue offering an alternative history of automobile design, essays and artist interviews. www.fondationcartier.com

Vanessa Leissring, Swing Netherlands, 2008. From the series Petrol Stations. C-Print, 40cm x 60cm. Courtesy of the artist. © Vanessa Leissring.

Fondation Cartier, Paris, once again focuses its attention on the world of cars, 30 years after the groundbreaking exhibition Hommage à Ferrari put the legendary Italian motor marque centre stage and addressed the problems of presenting masterpieces of racing design in a static format. Autophoto addresses the many ways in which the development of the car has reconfigured the world of photography. The motor vehicle was not only a new object for the photographer’s lens to study but brought with it a transformation of the landscapes through which it travelled – the distinct architecture and geometry of roadways, and a whole new approach to urbanisation and the nature of the modern city, alongside a new culture of freedom. It extended the geographical horizons of everyday life in a way that was accessible to many, and, through speeding up travel dramatically, altered our relationship to space and time. It created a new perspective on the world, of a landscape smoothly scrolling past the observer’s moving vehicle. The show offers a look in the rear-view mirror at the age of the car from its earliest days to the present, bringing together 400 works by 80 artists. On display are images of racing vehicles by Jacques Henri Lartigue (1921-2012), whose well-known photographs of the wealthier classes of French society included popular sporting events such the French Grand Prix, creating a vision of a carefree inter-war era

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art 1. Ted Soqui, The Riots of 1992 in Los Angeles, 1992. 2. Mark Shaw, Model wearing Balenciaga orange coat as I. Magnin buyers inspect a dinner outfit in the background, Paris, 1954. Detail. 3. Patrick Pound, Damaged, 2008-2017. Detail. Courtesy of Station, Melbourne, Stills Gallery, Sydney, Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington and Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland. 4. Postcommodity, A Very Long Line, 2016. Film still. Courtesy of the artists. 5. Edward Barber, Embrace the Base, 1982. 30,000 women link hands, completely surrounding the nine mile perimeter fence at RAF/USAF Greenham Common, Berkshire.

10 to See RECOMMENDED EXHIBITIONS THIS SEASON

On 3 March 1991, a highspeed chase ended with the videotaped beating of black taxi driver Rodney King by police officers who were acquitted by a largely white jury, sparking riots across Los Angeles in which 55 people died. CAAM’s No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992 looks back, 25 years on, to consider the complex history underlying the riots, from the Great Migration of the 1940s to the Watts Rebellion of 1965.

The designs of Cristóbal Balenciaga and his influence upon modern fashion are celebrated in the year that marks the centenary of the opening of his first fashion house. Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion, featuring over 100 garments and 20 hats, focuses in unique and unprecedented detail on the 1950s and 1960s, arguably one of the designer’s most creative periods, ensuring his title as the master of haute couture.

No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992

CAAM, Los Angeles Until 27 August www.caamuseum.org

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Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion

V&A, London 27 May - 18 February www.vam.ac.uk

Patrick Pound

NGV Melbourne Until 30 July www.ngv.vic.gov.au

An avid collector, New Zealand-born, Melbournebased artist Pound is fascinated by the categorisation and ordering of objects. For the irreverently titled Patrick Pound: The Great Exhibition, photographs, objects and curios sourced from the internet and charity shops will be organised alongside artworks from the NGV, and placed in unexpected contexts to form what the practitioner describes as “museums of things”, which reveal surprising connections.

Whitney Biennial

Whitney Museum, New York Until 11 June www.whitney.org

The first Biennial to be held in the Whitney’s new building, the latest edition takes the idea of the self as its theme – the forces that form it and the place of the individual in a turbulent society. A programme of 63 participating artists, whose works will fill two of the four main gallery floors and numerous other spaces, has been selected from disciplines including painting, installation, film and video, and video game design.

People Power: Fighting For Peace

IWM London Until 28 August www.iwm.org.uk

The 100th anniversary of the First World War offers a chance to consider a century of the anti-war movement that rose to prominence following the carnage. From a handwritten poem by Siegfried Sassoon to original designs for the “peace symbol” which became an emblem of 1960s counterculture, from Vietnam to Iraq, this event tells the stories of anti-war protest through paintings, literature, posters, banners and music.

6. Nari Ward, We the People, 2011. Shoelaces, 96 in x 324 in. In collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong. Photo: Will Brown. 7. Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #21, 1977. Gelatin silver print, 20.3 cm x 25.4 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York. 8. Hideyuki Nakayama, O House, 2009. © Mitsutaka Kitamura. 9. Heather Hart, Eastern Oracle, 2012. Installation, Brooklyn Museum. Photo: © Rebecca Reeve. 10. Alec Soth, Two Towels, 2005. From the series Niagara.

Nari Ward

ICA, Boston 26 April - 4 September www.icaboston.org

Jamaican-born Nari Ward engages with specific sites to create spectacular artwork from unlikely objects. Sun Splashed features 43 works whose materials range from soda pop bottles to shoelaces and shopping carts, and which cross the genres of sculpture, collage, photography, video, installation and performance. Ward’s approach captures the makeshift qualities of everyday life and themes including citizenship and migration.

From Selfie to Self-Expression

Saatchi Gallery, London Until 30 May www.saatchigallery.com

From the Old Masters to the present day “selfie”, the self-portrait can be revealing and profound, yet is often derided for inanity and vanity. This exhibition celebrates the past and present of the art form, with work from figures as diverse as Kutluğ Ataman, Tracey Emin, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Cindy Sherman and Velázquez. Displayed alongside are selfies that have become icons of the digital era.

The Japanese House

Barbican, London, Until 25 June www.barbican.org.uk

In the wake of World War II, the devastation of Tokyo and other cities in Japan brought an urgent need for new housing, and the family home quickly became the foremost site for architectural experimentation and debate. Since then, Japanese designers have consistently proposed innovative solutions to changing lifestyles. Barbican’s show is the first major UK exhibition of this post-war domestic architecture.

David Smith / Heather Hart

Storm King Art Center, New York 13 May - 12 November www.stormking.org

David Smith: The White Sculptures is the first show to fully consider the practitioner’s use of the colour white. The collected works here unite the entire Primo Piano series, as well as a selection of Smith’s earliest constructions from white coral. Running alongside, as part of the Outlooks series, Heather Hart installs an interactive, sculptural rooftop environment, enlivened by discussions and events.

Alec Soth

FOMU, Antwerp Until 4 June www.fotomuseum.be

US-born Alex Soth is a fine artist, photographer, blogger, educator and self-publisher who explores the many different forms that photography can take and creates equally diverse forms of encounter with his audiences, often by conducting live workshops from a Winnebago motorhome. Gathered Leaves brings together four pivotal series: Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004), Niagara (2006), Broken Manual (2010) and Songbook (2014).

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Societal Provocation Diffusion THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL TAKES REVOLUTION AS ITS CENTRAL THEME, UTILISING THE MEDIUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY TO DOCUMENT THE REPERCUSSIONS OF GLOBAL REVOLTS.

Since its inception in 2013, Diffusion, a biennial festival of around them. As Bertolt Brecht expressed it: ‘Art is not a international photography taking place at multiple venues mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.’” The outlook offered by the festival is broad, international in the city of Cardiff, has proven to be one of the most exciting showcases for photography in Europe. More than an and diverse, but the programme also presents photography art event, it is a social forum, using photography to initiate from Wales, a country which has always had a long and rich conversations around pressing social and political issues, history of protest and insurrection, from the Merthyr Rising and with remarkable prescience. In 2013 the festival asked in 1831 and the Newport Rising by Chartist sympathisers in the question “Where Are We Now?” and in particular looked at 1839 to the Miners’ Strike in the 1980s. Welsh artist David the role photography and digital media have in articulating Garner engages with this history of dissent and direct action. contemporary experience and identity in a New Europe. For As Drake remarks: “Garner imbues it with a contemporary the 2015 theme, Looking for America, Ffotogallery Director resonance that seems to reflect the anger and betrayal that David Drake chose images which examined how, in the post- led to the 2016 ‘Leave’ vote in England and Wales.” For this event, Garner has developed new ideas looking 9/11 world of economic recession, the vaunted American dream, the belief that life will get better, and that progress at the legacy of Nye Bevan, inspired by an archival is inevitable if we obey the rules and work hard, had been photograph depicting Bevan rubbing his eyes, as if weeping at the dismantling of the National Health Service, whose replaced by a hard and bitter truth. The 2017 event continues a longstanding exploration of establishment he spearheaded. In Respond, the practitioner social and political themes with its focus on Revolution. As offers two contemporary works that link the Chartist Drake comments: “I have been actively seeking work that movement with the current austerity climate in South shows how revolutionary change requires a challenge to the Wales. In one of these, an ornate chandelier, a symbol of established order, acts of protest and rebellion, insurgency, decadence associated with opulent lifestyles, is constructed risk and experimentation, new ideas and ideologies.” Given from 576 coins with a monetary value of a mere £11.52. the new global political context, the theme seems especially Each coin has been hand stamped with words in Welsh and relevant today, and the urgency is not lost on the festival’s English relating them to the media’s vocabulary of austerity. Whilst many of the featured exhibitions investigate director. “These are turbulent and uncertain times. I am interested in how photography, and art more generally, revolutionary movements in contemporary life, the event can disrupt audience perceptions and offer a potentially also focuses on counter-culture movements of the 20th transformative vision for society, as artists seek new ways to century. One such show focuses on the contributions of see, represent and understand the world rapidly changing John “Hoppy” Hopkins, as Drake explains: “Between 1960

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kennnardphillipps, In Humanity, 2016. © kennnardphillipps.

“Digital technology has dramatically changed ordinary people’s relationship with photography in that on a daily basis we now consume and process a vast quantity of imagebased information on our computers, phones and other devices.”

Previous Page: kennardphillipps, Christina’s World. Detail. Commissioned by Greenpeace. © kennardphillipps. Left: Manuel Bougot, Chandigarh, High Court, Le Corbusier. © Manuel Bougot.

and 1966, Hopkins captured the vibrancy of discontent and understand what’s happening in the world through visual the emerging counter-culture in Britain, which was expressed means. The piece is made as a critical tool that connects to through activism, poetic expression and art.” This exhibition international movements for social and political change.” In brings together a selection of unseen images from the State of the Nations, which has been specially commissioned photographer’s own archive alongside others included in the for Diffusion 2017, resistance to the status quo is embedded very few public exhibitions of his work to date. Captured here in the deconstruction of news images and narratives built is the historic poetry convention at The Royal Albert Hall in from everyday materials, photomontage and text. The artists 1965, as well as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr’s first have extended this critique into the contemporary political visits to London, Committee of 100 and CND marches, and environment, as Drake explains: “kennardphillipps dig into the surface of words and images to visualise the connection images of anti-racist and pro-Civil Rights demonstrations. Vanley Burke, as Drake remarks, is “often described as between the oppressed majority and the political and the ‘Godfather of Black British Photography’, whereby financial elites of the everyday, remixing earlier pieces and his iconic images have captured the evolving cultural creating new artwork that addresses contemporary issues landscape, social change, and stimulated debate in the relating to Trump, Brexit and the refugee and migrant crisis.” Photography as an art form, has been strongly linked to a United Kingdom over the past four decades.” Burke’s oeuvre represents possibly the largest photographic record of the sense of upheaval. This is because of both the technological Caribbean Diaspora in Britain, and he continues to connect and the creative possibilities it affords, and also its histories through his substantial archive, housed at the accessibility. This revolutionary quality of photography Library of Birmingham. He played a key role in documenting is continually evolving, as Drake highlights: “Digital protest in 1970s and 1980s Birmingham, including Anti- technology has dramatically changed ordinary people’s Nazi League demonstrations and the Handsworth uprising. relationship with photography in that on a daily basis we He also photographed Sharpeville demonstrations in South now consume and process a vast quantity of image-based information on our computers, televisions, mobile phones Africa in the 1990s, as the Apartheid system crumbled. Recent echoes of mass counter-culture movements are and other devices.” Laís Pontes questions the construction woven throughout the contributions from kennardphillipps, a of identity in the digital age, as well as the role social media collaboration between Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps, who and its characters play in this construction. In the same way have been working together since 2002 to produce art in that she uses a camera and performance, Pontes utilises response to the invasion of Iraq. Drake highlights that this virtual platforms like Facebook and Instagram as tools in idea stretches beyond the display space: “It is made for the the process of creation, giving viewers the opportunity to street, the gallery, the web, newspapers and magazines, and take over the role of artist, which allows the piece to shift in aims to engage audiences in a direct manner and help them meaning during a collaborative process. This is an invitation

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Vanley Burke, Anti-National Front demonstrators in the Bull Ring, Birmingham. © Vanley Burke.

for onlookers to experience, interact and develop a critical view of the effect that social media has on identity. This exhibition, Drake suggests, focuses on some of the ongoing revolutionary possibilities of photography: “In examining how fictional and real narratives collide on social media platforms, Pontes’ work explores issues of gender fluidity and how personal and other data is captured, analysed and used in art and society – both for good and for less benign purposes such as surveillance or data mining.” If Pontes’ aesthetic is of the technological age, this festival as a whole also locates social change in relation to modernist aesthetics and architecture, for example, in French photographer Manuel Bougot’s Chandigarh: Portrait of a City. Chandigarh was one of the early planned cities in post-independence India and is internationally known for its innovative architecture and urban design. The master plan was prepared by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. Chandigarh is regarded as one of the most progressive cities of the world in terms of architecture, cultural growth and modernisation. Bougot investigates how Le Corbusier’s philosophy and approach was realised in this unique city. For Drake, this particular aspect of the festival highlights photography’s revolutionary impact on the built environment: “Since its invention in the 19th century, photography has always done more than simply capture the shapes and spatial forms of buildings and skylines. The medium transformed how new developments were conceived by architects and how they were received by the public. Architecture in the 20th century relied on photography to communicate its modernist and post-modernist practices within a utopian view of the emerging “new world.” The last century saw a change in

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architecture and the built environment across the developed Right: Bougot, parts of the globe, realised through the dramatic expansion Manuel Chandigarh, High Court, Le Corbusier. © Manuel Bougot. of towns and cities; the expansion of new technologies; the creation of suburbia and new towns; a transformation in road, rail and air travel; post-war reconstruction of cities and the need for social housing in response to population growth.” The centenary this year of the Russian Revolution, of course informs Diffusion in both thematic and direct ways. Photography was an essential part of how the events of 1917 were documented and awareness was spread, but its formal possibilities also engendered some of the most innovative and revolutionary art practices of the 20th century. Photography and, by extension, film were used not simply as propaganda and to document revolutionary change but also to create new forms of artistic expression. “Many of the featured artists, including kennardphillipps, Paolo Ciregia, George Blair and Danila Tkachenko, directly reference Soviet styles of photomontage, Constructivism and Suprematism.” In addition to the curated programme, there is also a special exhibition, Zeitgeist, which takes the temperature of contemporary photography and its relation to protest and revolution. As Drake remarks: “Our news feeds have latterly Words been dominated by Brexit, Trumpism, globalisation, climate Colin Herd change, poverty, religious intolerance, the migrant and refugee crisis, diversity, nationalism, border control, hate crime, gentrification, and community division. For all the Diffusion: Cardiff technological socio-economic progress made, we live in a International Festival world blighted by inequality, war and political upheaval.” of Photography. The powerful and politically engaged images featured 1-31 May . throughout Diffusion highlight ways in which art can stimulate the conversations that engender social change. www.diffusionfestival.org

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art

Idealised Construction Thomas Wrede

German artist Thomas Wrede (b. 1963) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Münster from 1986 to 1992 and is now a professor of photography and new media at the University of Fine Arts Essen. Influenced by how nature is presented within today’s media, Real Landscapes (2004-2016) reproduces various topographies, traversing the lines between simulation and reality and manufacturing the colossal through the miniature. Wrede uses commonplace objects for the staging of the images: toy cars, classic houses and pine trees taken from a model train kit are placed on North Sea beaches, in coal dumps, on garbage heaps and piles of rubble. As a consequence, the compositions simultaneously depict a sense of the monumental and the idyllic, reduced to an existence dependent upon the lens of the camera. The sheer expanse of the environment is thrown into largescale perspective through sparsely spread signs of civilisation. www.thomas-wrede.de.

Thomas Wrede, House over the Dunes, 2007. Detail. 95cm x 120cm / 120cm x 150cm. From the series Real Landscapes.

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Thomas Wrede, In the Tertiary Valley, 2008. 95cm x 120cm / 140cm x 180cm. From the series Real Landscapes.

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Thomas Wrede, Above the Valley, 2009. 95cm x 129cm / 170cm x 210cm. From the series Real Landscapes.

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Thomas Wrede, Football Pitch, 2008. 95cm x 120cm / 140cm x 180cm. From the series Real Landscapes.

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Thomas Wrede, The Luminous Screen, 2015. 95cm x 130cm / 140cm x 190cm. From the series Real Landscapes.

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Thomas Wrede, Fred & Red’s Café, 2015. 95cm x 120cm / 170cm x 220cm. From the series Real Landscapes.

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art

Cultural Discoveries Photo London

Created in 2015, Photo London was intended to befit the capital’s cultural status. Now in its third year, the event has become a powerhouse for international galleries to showcase the revolution of an ever-expanding medium. This year, Aesthetica has chosen from a diverse selection of photographers to provide a glimpse into the truly inspiring developments that are taking place throughout the industry, spearheading a new generation of experimenters who are capturing the world in unprecedented ways. From digital to analogue, each image instils a sense of innovation, documenting an everyday that is richly steeped in narrative and identity. As one of the largest events of the year of its kind, Photo London also promises to host an unmissable programme of events, including individual exhibitions from their 2017 Master of Photography, Taryn Simon, as well as Juergen Teller and William Klein. For tickets, visit: www.photolondon.org.

Cesare Fabbri, The Flying Carpet, 2017. From the photobook The Flying Carpet. © Cesare Fabbri. Courtesy of MACK.

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Mark Power, Ingoldmells, 2006. From the series Destroying the Laboratory for the Sake of the Experiment. ÂŠ Mark Power / Magnum Photos.

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Martin Essl, Le Château Rouge No 18, 2014. From the series Le Château Rouge. © Martin Essl. Courtesy of Galerie Esther Woerdehoff.

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Tod Papageorge, Untitled, New York, 1966-67. ÂŠ Tod Papageorge. Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne.

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Toshio Shibata, Okawa Village, Tosa County, Kochi Prefecture, 2007. Â© Toshio Shibata. Courtesy of IBASHO.

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Willy Spiller, Accident, New York, 1977-1984. Â© Willy Spiller. Courtesy of BILDHALLE.

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Collective Responsibility Ethical Fashion Initiative DESIGNERS FROM SOUTH AFRICA ARE LOOKING AT NEW WAYS TO INNOVATE AND CREATE AWARENESS ABOUT THE COUNTRY’S BURGEONING FASHION INDUSTRY.

South Africa is swiftly becoming a focus for fashion aficionados, with designers garnering international recognition. Thula Sindi, David Tlale and SELFI are amongst the more well-known names of the global and domestic stage. However, alongside these established brands are some young emerging talents that are breaking into the international market through the support of groups such as the Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI), a flagship programme of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. The aim of the aforementioned group is, as Communications Assistant Maryjo Cartier states: “To promote local fashion encouraging ‘Made in Africa’ manufacturing with artisans, and support the growth of small enterprises. Through exposure, designers gain a unique opportunity to showcase their work and understand the expectations and quality standards of the industry as well as knowledge of how it works as a whole (from putting together catwalk shows to the requirements of retailers). Through connections created by the EFI, brands like Sindiso Khumalo and MaXhosa by Laduma have secured new retail outlets and media coverage.” Practitioners who have particularly benefited from EFI’s African Designer Programme include Lukhanyo Mdingi and Adriaan Kuiters of the AKJP Collective. Due to their involvement with the EFI, both names were recently approached as the subject of fashion documentaries by Brooklyn-based studio Noir Tribe – a company that has been nominated for numerous awards and screened at festivals including the Miami Fashion Film Festival, the London Fashion Film Festival, the Istanbul Fashion Film Festival and

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the Australian International Fashion Film Festival. The short films, part of a series called Ethetics (a title that combines ethics and aesthetics), were the brainchild of Amber Moelter and Luis Barreto Carrillo, a collaboration that was born through the wide-spread connections of the EFI, which in turn has a strong history of marrying fashion and cinema. As Simone Cipriani, founder and director, says: “It is more vital than ever to create awareness amongst the general public of the social issues behind the surface of fashion.” The idea for Ethetics can be traced back to Moelter, who explains: “I reached out to the EFI shortly before travelling to Cape Town for the Mercedes-Benz Bokeh South Africa Fashion Film Festival where we were showing a documentary and a fashion film. Maryjo Cartier at EFI introduced me to Keith Henning at AKJP and Lukhanyo Mdingi, who were all very enthusiastic about working together on a hybrid documentary / fashion film. We sent the finished piece to the EFI and officially announced our partnership.” The motivation fuelling the films snowballed after this initial green light. Moelter notes: “We learned that the effects of fast fashion hit the designers hard, so to compete, they focus on social responsibility and quality in their production. Henning brought his seamstresses into town to work out of his studio, which allowed them to collaborate with other clients, providing a more sustainable lifestyle for themselves and their children. He also expressed the importance of having long-term responsibility for his local team and considering them in the choices that he makes, such as relocation.” Noir Tribe’s work is rooted in this growing movement of

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Macrame Collection. Photographer: Travys Owen. Art Director & Stylist: Gabrielle Kannemeyer. Model: Daniel Phahlamohlake.

“There is a ‘new understanding’ that the seemingly high quality of fast fashion is seducing customers and when the actual quality quickly deteriorates, they just go out and buy another one.”

Previous Page: Macrame Collection. Photographer: Travys Owen. Art Director & Stylist: Gabrielle Kannemeyer. Model: Daniel Phahlamohlake. Left: Photographer: Anika Molnár. Model: London Knight at Fusion Models Styling: Nicole Danielle. Hair and Make-up: Jacqueline D’Nielle. Assistant: Clive Myburgh. © Georgette Magazine.

communal and environmental consciousness, with their films propagating “a harmony of products that cause the least damage to the planet as possible whilst still giving the consumer satisfaction.” Moelter and Carrillo hope that their contributions can “initiate conversations about ethical fashion by exploring ecological benefits and a variety of ways to implement them, such as reducing the water footprint and using natural dyes and organic fibres, and introducing processes to eliminate textile waste like recycling, upcycling, closing the loop, zero waste and cradle to cradle.” Compared to the “dog-eat-dog fashion industry in New York”, what the filmmakers found through their extensive interviews was: “the importance of a collective. Mdingi recently told us: ‘We, as a label, have now reached a stage where it goes far beyond focusing on our in-house production but we are eager to find out the background of the raw materials that are being sourced and the manufacturing history. Being a part of this larger infrastructure has made that possible.’” Moelter also expands upon the inspiration behind the project: not only do Noir Tribe demonstrate a sense of group morals, but a conscious move away from the westernised idea of disposable garments. “In Henning’s experience, there is a ‘new understanding’ that the seemingly high quality of fast fashion is seducing customers and when the actual material quickly deteriorates, they just go out and buy another one. And in turn, Mdingi emphasises how buying local supports the economy and empowers the arts.” The EFI’s far-reaching network stretches to Haiti, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Kenya, Ethiopia, the West Bank and Cambodia, which demonstrates a shift in consumer trends away from established centres, as more and more people

are integrating sustainable practices into their daily lives. Using a monitoring tool called RISE (Respect, Invest, Sustain, Empower), the impact of producing fashion is fully traced by the supply chain. The tool communicates the added value brought about by artisanal production. The information is furthered by RISEMAP, an online platform which showcases the complexity of a product’s journey through photos and videos. Any garment that has the RISE label has a QR code that guides the reader to data and stories, and charts the item from inception to its final production. The outcomes are ultimately manifested through the mentoring and guidance of the African Designer Programme in which creatives are given the opportunity to showcase their collections at top fashion weeks. But whether this necessarily translates into a global boost to the designer’s career, or just a one-off, needs to be more closely tracked. Kuiters (from the AKJP) says that their participation in the Generation Africa show at Pitti Uomo 2016 in Florence, an opportunity offered through the EFI, had a direct impact on their output as they were forced to produce a collection in a limited amount of time. Though a much-needed morale boost, breaking into the European market proved more difficult due to more known fashion houses and brands taking precedence. The AKJP Collective tends to outsource everything to near-by craftsmen, rather than make products in-house at the studio, encouraging participants to move forward together rather than as individuals. Funding in South Africa is distributed through umbrella groups, so financially it makes sense. This is in stark contrast to the über-competitive fashion industry in the previously mentioned fast-paced and competitive capitals of New York, Milan and Paris, where

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Macrame Collection. Photographer: Travys Owen. Art Director & Stylist: Gabrielle Kannemeyer. Model: Daniel Phahlamohlake.

there is a much more cut-throat environment. This landscape of rivalry often means that a lot of emphasis is placed on, and money is pushed towards, marketing budgets and multinational advertising campaigns, rather than used to invest in higher quality fabrics and production, helping social causes at a grassroots level and paying a fair living wage. Mdingi also shares this perspective, noting that the less established infrastructure of support in South Africa means that designers need to assist one another as a matter of necessity. Their situation is due to not just politics but a lack of textiles, skilled labourers and machinery. This makes it difficult to experiment and use different techniques. Having a local customer helps empower smaller businesses that produce the raw materials needed to thrive and flourish. Though new technology has enabled young visionaries to operate internationally, it hasn’t necessarily translated to the manufacturing level. Again, this is something that needs to be and is being addressed through the efforts of the EFI. Kuiters says: “Luxury fashion is a very new concept in Africa,” and ultimately it is incredibly difficult to compete with cities that have stronger economies and distribution channels. Added to that is the matter of producing clothes that can sell both domestically and internationally. Cape Town doesn’t really have a winter like cities in the northern hemisphere, so a delicate balance is required to produce cold-weather garments that are appropriate for global export. MERGE ZA, a travelling showroom, presented the ideas of Mdingi as well as four other South African designers – Rich Mnisi, SELFI, Wanda Lephoto and Young & Lazy to London Fashion Week in September 2016, bringing South African fashion design and concepts to a much wider audience.

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Increasingly, brands will have to look outwards for promotion on the international stage – and this goes beyond merely the support of famous faces like Michelle Obama (who wore Nigerian designer Maki Oh on her Africa tour in 2013). South Africa is the main shopping destination for subSaharan nations, and larger cities such as Cape Town have what you’d expect on a typical high street. This means that there is no real retail outlet for many of these burgeoning studios, which makes it difficult for consumers to support local practitioners as they don’t know where to buy the garments. However, Mdingi argues optimistically: “We have the power to do anything and everything that we want; it’s important for us to realise that we are living in a globalised world. It’s up to us to use our networks in the best possible way to create these opportunities.” The wider influence of the fashion industry – model agencies, stylists, make-up artists, the media, events and private boutiques – is increasingly being fostered in Africa. Elle South Africa magazine’s Rising Star competition (in which Mdingi was a 2013 finalist) means that the immediate press is identifying and promoting this area of growth. Integral to such development must be a recognition of the impact on the communities, promoted by tools such as Ethical Fashion Initiative’s RISE, and with nine of the world’s 20 fastest-growing economies being African, it is important that consumers and designers do not lose track of the significance of safe working conditions, a fair living wage, and the importance of understanding the source of the raw materials they use in manufacturing. As Noir Tribe dares its viewers: “Let’s prove that ethical fashion isn’t a cause to donate to, but is full of stylish brands worth investing in.”

Right: Macrame Collection. Photographer: Travys Owen. Art Director & Stylist: Gabrielle Kannemeyer. Model: Daniel Phahlamohlake.

Words Niamh Coghlan

ethicalfashioninitiative.org

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Vibrant Equilibrium Laura Allard-Fleischl

New Zealand-born Laura Allard-Fleischl (b. 1990) currently lives in London, where she works as a digital freelancer whilst shooting film for publications including i-D, Hunger, Wonderland, Elle, Vice and Badlands777, as well as a number of brands locally and internationally. Images from both the Seaside Siren and Between Planets series combine elements of fashion and fine art photography, striking up an intriguing balance between organic forms. The models are interspersed within a number of textural geographies that provide cathartic and visually arresting juxtapositions. Sunlit cliffs become rough backdrops that further accentuate elements of bold, earthy styling, whilst the deep warmth of grassy moors emphasises crisp blue skylines and fabrics. The sequences demonstrate awareness of tonal relief, evoking an undeniable elegance in the youthful figures whilst utilising unexpected angles to create a contemporary edge. www.allard-fleischl.com.

Photographer: Laura Allard-Fleischl. Stylist: Alice Burnfield. Hair and Makeup: Alice Oliver. Model: Emma Laird @ Models 1 for Wonderland.

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Photographer: Laura Allard-Fleischl. Stylist: Immy Wilson. Model: Renee Wilkins Foster @ Clyne for Badlands777.

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Photographer: Laura Allard-Fleischl. Stylist: Immy Wilson. Model: Renee Wilkins Foster @ Clyne for Badlands777.

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Photographer: Laura Allard-Fleischl. Stylist: Alice Burnfield. Hair and Makeup: Alice Oliver. Model: Emma Laird @ Models 1 for Wonderland.

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Photographer: Laura Allard-Fleischl. Stylist: Immy Wilson. Model: Renee Wilkins Foster @ Clyne for Badlands777.

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Photographer: Laura Allard-Fleischl. Stylist: Alice Burnfield. Hair and Makeup: Alice Oliver. Model: Emma Laird @ Models 1 for Wonderland.

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Photographer: Laura Allard-Fleischl. Stylist: Alice Burnfield. Hair and Makeup: Alice Oliver. Model: Emma Laird @ Models 1 for Wonderland.

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Photographer: Laura Allard-Fleischl. Stylist: Immy Wilson. Model: Renee Wilkins Foster @ Clyne for Badlands777.

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Photographer: Laura Allard-Fleischl. Stylist: Alice Burnfield. Hair and Makeup: Alice Oliver. Model: Emma Laird @ Models 1 for Wonderland.

art

Modern Perceptions Girl on Girl CHARLOTTE JANSEN’S ANTHOLOGY OF WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS INVESTIGATES THE VERY NOTION OF PORTRAITURE AND ASSUMED PERCEPTIONS IN THE 21st CENTURY.

“Everything that women do is eventually fetishised in some in depth at the diverse positions of women all over the world way because we are still living in a patriarchy,” explains through documentation by, for and in defence of the gender. British Sri Lankan author Charlotte Jansen: “The media of the Over three years, Jansen interviewed 40 practitioners from moment is no different in how it deals with image-making – 17 different countries; she had collected people’s names the fact that women are now photographing each other more through her work as a writer, editor and curator for a decade. than ever is being sensationalised, and therefore understood Whittling the list down was a difficult task, and whilst some might think that there is some kind of cohesion to be found as something vain, or commercial and of fleeting interest.” In recent years there have been successful protests against between the selected contributors, either through thematic the way that the media represents the female form. In content or political sentiment, this is far from the truth. As she affirms: “The contributors are not all feminists and 2015 there was the famous petition against Protein World’s advert “Are You Beach Body Ready?” featuring a bikini-clad, they don’t all talk about the concept of femininity. The tanned and toned model pasted across the walls of the message we usually get from the media is that this is the London underground, which led to mayor Sadiq Khan’s only thing that women artists want to talk about. I wanted banning of body-shaming on the tube, and Page Three is to show that that’s not the case at all, and that many long gone. Still, images of women for public consumption women are frustrated by that interpretation. What connects predominantly present the demure and petite or the polished them is that they choose to document women – it is the and sexualised, with the appearance of the face and body one simple thing they have in common. The book is an inevitably receiving more attention than the intelligence, attempt to see what the outcome of the link is, how it might affect us and how we perceive the female figure in real life.” creativity or professional achievements of the individual. These forms of imagery conform to the popular definition Whilst political upheaval is shifting social strata in dramatic of the “male gaze”, which has been held responsible for and unprecedented ways, this isn’t necessarily the reason objectification for centuries. Where this type of voyeurism why the text was put together. Girl on Girl is not an agenda to has become synonymous with exploitation, the “female give voices to underrepresented women, nor is it a text which gaze”, meanwhile, might conjure ideas of celebration or exists to demonstrate a specific ideal. It is a manifesto for the empowerment – yet these themselves are more clichés which technological age – a vital example of self-reflection. Where an increasing number of people are taking and uploading can diminish the complexities of what it is to be a woman. Rather than fight the male gaze with a series of overblown, pictures of themselves to an ever-expanding universe of data, stereotypically addressed images, Jansen’s new book Girl on and the camera has become a readily accessible medium, a Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze looks widespread sense of anxiety is emerging, one which is filled

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Juno Calypso, Reconstituted Meat Slices, 2013. Courtesy of the artist.

“Rather than fight the male gaze with a series of overblown, stereotypically addressed images, Jansen’s book looks in depth at the diverse positions of women all over the world through documentation by, for and in defence of the gender.”

Previous Page: Isabelle Wenzel, Red, Yellow, Blue, 2015. Detail. Courtesy of the artist. Left: Isabelle Wenzel, Strips 6.1.1, 2015. Detail. Courtesy of the artist.

haunting stills from the rooms of a Pennsylvania Love Hotel. with new and complex forms of judgement and speculation. Calypso, a 27-year-old London-based artist, has been So why put together a text like this, and why now? Jansen explains: “I got into a fight on Twitter about feminist selfies inhabiting an alter-ego named Joyce since 2011; in 2015 and how they are used online, and I realised I had a lot of she took Joyce on a honeymoon to the USA, explaining prejudice about the images women make of themselves and that “my first thought was that I’d be out of my mind to go others. It made me want to investigate the social effects in a all that way to take some pictures, but after failing to find more meaningful way.” The idea grew into a larger venture, anything similar in Europe I knew I’d be even crazier not to one which sought to question the very notion of perception go.” Prepared for a solid week of 24-hour shooting amidst and provide an antithesis for the voyeur – instead offering a lurid props such as a pink heart-shaped bath and a curved wall of infinity mirrors, Calypso packed a suitcase of wigs, celebration of the contemporary creative practitioner. The volume as a whole is not to be taken as a guidebook, or body paint and wedding lingerie and told the hotel she an argument for the responsibilities that practitioners have was a travel writer. She adds that “eager for a good review, towards their artwork. “I think women artists should have the they handed me keys to every room in the resort. I exploited freedom to express whatever they want to and not have to them all, and so we find a character, or an array of imaginary explain it – just as men have been able to do,” states Jansen, figures, in solitary moments of preparation and anticipation.” The resulting series, The Honeymoon, is humorous yet who also negates any sense of collective motive or political agenda to address certain topics. The works are not thickly strikingly accurate in communicating emotions around layered with political intent, even if the artists might have female sexuality. Joyce finds moments of fulfilment in these kinds of intentions on a personal level. When asked performing, appreciating and investigating her own figure; about the sense of responsibility artists might have to tackle elsewhere she appears crest-fallen in space purpose-built for a commercialisation of romance; and at other times she current issues, Jansen offers: “Not any more than we all do.” This dynamic contribution from publisher Laurence King is seemingly exhausted by the expectations of her chosen should be seen as an experiment – one which takes the reader environment. The themes exist as a rich tapestry, much like on a journey through visual and mental stimulation. The the experiences of women as a population: “The Honeymoon diverse and beautifully presented images range dramatically, is about so many things: fantasy, fulfillment, loneliness, love from Tonje Bøe Birkeland’s crisply detailed shots across and the social expectations that women are subjected to.” The series has been likened to that of Cindy Sherman: Greenland, Mongolia, Bhutan and the mountains of Norway to Iiu Susiraja’s comedic and satirical self-portraits in which a “Women dressing up and taking pictures of themselves is a teacup is balanced on one breast, and from Isabelle Wenzel’s historical, global practice [so] why is there only room for one documented performances, which reduce the clothed body artist to be doing this?” Indeed, several of the contributors to a colourful sculpture, to Juno Calypso’s sexualised yet use their body as the material of their practice; however,

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Phebe Schmidt, Hermetically Sealed, 2013. Courtesy of the artist.

like a painter using oils to create a portrait, they are not the subject. Where Calypso is her own medium, and Joyce forms the content of the collection, German practitioner Isabelle Wenzel works with her own figure because she “was stressed by the idea of the photographer as someone who goes out and explores the world. I didn’t want to explore the world.” Although it may not often be spoken about as such, photography is a social practice – involving casting models, corresponding, and shooting together for hours – and there is also the model’s own expectation to take into account. This social interruption, Wenzel notes, had become disruptive to her career and so in 2011 the artist decided to work entirely by herself, liberating her to capture contorted bodies in strange settings, as the discomfort is all her own. As Jansen affirms: “She simply uses herself because it allows her the most control over the image and the most freedom, at the same time.” The pieces are entirely about physicality, rather than the individual, supported by the fact that a face is never presented. “I’m not interested in feminism,” Wenzel states. As previously mentioned, this is a common statement amongst those involved in Girl on Girl, and in fact the catalyst for the whole publication lies in avoiding the charged word, even though it appears printed across a pair of powder-pink cotton knickers. The offending item appears in an image taken by Israeli-born, US-based Mayan Toledano, and the wearer is a topless young woman, who lies face down on her marshmallow-pink bedsheets, a flawless bare back dappled with glittery rainbows, butterflies and shooting stars. Jansen admits that this image initially “made me angry” yet through her anger came the recognition that she, like many of us, were subjected to a – very quickly assumed – negative

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response. As we are so used to looking at images of the Right: Isabelle Wenzel, Field Studies 1, 2014. female form which are enployed to sell products, brands Detail. Courtesy of the artist. and lifestyles, and are constructed to cause anxiety and envy, our understanding of how to take a feminist portrait is confused and deeply contentious: is the gender specificity of the image created in its conception or the way it is received? As Toledano’s saccharine shots of 21st century teens – spurred by contemporary girl-power and accessorised with scrunchies and lollipops – prove, the feminine can indeed be feminist. The practitioner explains that her images are in fact a reaction against her experience of fashion school, where she was expected to reject “girly playfulness in order to be taken seriously” – as if “girly” is the antithesis of powerful, determined or strong. Toledano produces images for the clothing brand Me and You, and for 45,000 followers on Instagram, breaking free from what femininity is perceived to be – “the one-tone female that is usually represented in mass media” – instead allowing women to “love themselves, to be sexual, hormonal, vulnerable. Any form of exposure is empowering as long as the creator considers it to be.” After prompting the project three years earlier, Toledano has made it into the book, with Jansen explaining: “she came Words to see the knickers as the beginning of an imperfect but very Chloe Hodge important process of emancipation.” This text, too, is the beginning of a movement to address the bias toward male artists, writers, filmmakers, and to further the gender balance Girl on Girl: Art and of the names on the bookends. As Jansen notes, whilst Photography in the Age there may in fact be little difference between how genders of the Female Gaze. photograph each other, women “have the right to self- Published by Laurence King. objectify and to exploit without critique, just as men have been allowed to do since the earliest forms of expression.” www.laurenceking.com

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art

Formal Oppositions Hideaki Hamada

Whilst Hyogo-born Hideaki Hamada’s (b. 1977) has an expansive practice encompassing portraiture, lifestyle, travel and documentary, an attention to human nature creates stylistic cohesion across all genres. Building up an intimate relationship between individuals and their surroundings, Hamada creates a softly lit landscape – a conceptual playground for its inhabitants. Going Against The Grain is the best example of this, depicting four uniformed figures who haunt open fields and concrete staircases in dynamic anonymity and seeming unison broken only by one outlier who walks in a different direction or faces another way. Commenting on globalisation and conformity, this poignant series is both delicate and revolutionary. As well as exhibiting in both Asia and Europe, the Osaka-based photographer has been published in Kinfolk, Frame and The Big Issue Taiwan, amongst others. Hamada was also named Official Photographer at the 2013 Setouchi Triennale. www.hideakihamada.com.