In reply to didi:

Izima Kaoru?

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IZIMA KAORU
LANDSCAPES WITH A CORPSE
7 MARCH - 20 APRIL 2002

f a projects presents the first solo exhibition in the UK of work by the Japanese photographer Izima Kaoru.

Since 1993 Izima Kaoru has been developing an extended series of works which he calls ‘Landscapes with a Corpse’. For each he collaborates with an actress or model to develop her fantasy of ‘a perfect death’. The collaboration extends to location, the actress’ outfit and the manner of her death. He then constructs the scenes, and shoots a series of images from the panoramic to the close-up. Initially shot in Japan with Japanese models, wearing outfits by Yohji Yamamoto, Hermès or Prada, this year Kaoru has begun to make works in the series in Europe, working with European models, most recently in Munich, with Barbara Rudnik, and in France with Helena Noguerra and Aure Atika. For this exhibition Karou will exhibit works from these recent series.

Kaoru’s ‘Landscapes with a Corpse’ assert the artists’ firm belief that death be viewed as an integral part of life, rather than its opposite. They also harness the power of their troubling conjunction of beauty and horror. They consider the part that notions of death and beauty play in the Japanese culture and psyche, and, in extending their practice to the West, negotiate the slippage between Western and Japanese cultural tropes.

In the autumn of 2002 Kaoru’s work will be included in the exhibition 'Rapture: Art's Seduction by Fashion, 1970 – 2001', at the Barbican. Recent exhibitions include the Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam, Von Lintel and Nusser, New York and Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris. His work is represented in collections internationally.