For its fourth exhibition in Sankt-Apern-Strasse, the Van der Grinten Galerie is showing a new series by the Japanese photographer Izima Kaoru (*1954). The exhibition title “Angela Reynolds Wears Valentino” is, at the same time, the title of his recent cycle from the series “Landscapes with a Corpse”, to which the artist has devoted himself since 1993.

In view of the countless exhibitions and participations by Izima Kaoru over the past 10 years (Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden, Kunsthalle Wien, Musée d’Art Moderne Gran-Duc Jean Luxemburg, museum voor moderne kunst Arnhem, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, as well as many gallery exhibits in Paris, London, New York and Cologne), it is hardly necessary to introduce the concept of his serial work. Izima Kaoru has his models—among whom are renowned models and actresses—invent a fictional story of their decease, which he then translates photographically into elaborate productions. He approaches the deceased—in their splendid robes by Dior, Vivienne Westwood or Prada and their perfect beauty—from a painterly long shot all the way to a close-up. The enigmatic and aesthetic brilliance lend the, by now, over 50 series their bewitching beauty.

In this way, not only a play on fashion photography unfolds, but above all an artistic engagement with the themes of Eros and Thanatos.

On the gallery’s ground floor, the 51st series “Angela Reynolds Wears Valentino” is presented, for the first time outside of Japan. The work consists of five monumental, vertical-format photos—a triptych and two single pictures—that allude to the traditional forms of old Japanese script and picture scrolls (emakimono) and folding screens.

He created the series in 2011/2012 as a commission for the Art Museum of the city of Toyota. The exceptional natural phenomenon of white cherry blossoms that bloom at the same time in November as maple leaves turn red—only found in the Toyota region—has become a breathtaking ornamental and colorful motif in the hands of the artist via his aesthetic vocabulary. The poetic dimension is augmented further by the story that lies behind the staging: The Japanese legend of celestial beings (tennyo), court ladies of the emperor in heaven, are able to fly thanks to their feathery robes. One of them is robbed of her clothes and cannot return to heaven. She marries a man and spends her life on earth, where a human fate awaits her…

On the gallery’s upper floor, a display of earlier works from the series “Landscapes with a Corpse” and “One Sun” are presented.

Everyday at 1pm and 3pm, documentary films and interviews on Kaoru’s work will be shown.

Van der Grinten Galerie has worked together with Izima Kaoru since 1999.

The large monograph, Landscapes with a Corpse, was issued by Hantje Cantz publishers in 2009 and can be purchased at the gallery for the price of € 68.

Something But the God

Izima Kaoru

I am an atheist or have no religion. And I am a creator of “Landscapes with a Corpse”, the series which deals with the theme of death, for 15 years. I did not have a clear intention in choosing death as a theme at first. I do not enjoy looking at the real corpse and I did not know if the established theory of “Japanese idealize death” is true. However what I became conscious about in the course of continuing “Landscapes with a Corpse” project is that I am afraid of dying very much.

I do not think anybody would deny that it is only natural for us all to be afraid of dying but then how do we overcome this fear? Seeking for a way to get away from the fear through this project, I came to realize many people did so by believing a religion, relying upon their belief to live.

It is more than ten years ago when I visited a German town, Weimar. I decided to see my friend who is a professional ballet dancer performing in the town. I stayed at a hotel in the outskirts of a small suburban town in Weimar. I went out for a walk the next day. One step out of the hotel, there was a wild bush so abundantly green and a big pond. I felt like I was in a paradise drawn in paintings; the gradation of different shades of green made by the sunshine and the sound of those leaves touching each other was resonant with the echoing beautiful songs of birds.

It was after a little while when I remembered where I stood was a part of the former East Germany until only a few years ago. I had an image of the countries in the east side during the Cold War, to be covered with heavy clouds but that broke down in my mind as if crashed by a hummer. I have clearly felt that the Sun is an existence that shines just equally in anywhere on earth, to anybody without any prejudice. Of course, the Sun shines equally not only onto Germany divided into the west and the east, but also onto the South and the North Korea, India and Pakistan as well as many countries in the middle of war and conflicts, without taking sides even though there is only one Sun in universe. When I recalled such experience in Weimar, I got overwhelmed by the greatness of the Sun and I came to wish to make it the object to clasp my hands together.

One day, after a several years that I kept thinking about the Sun, searching for the way to sublime the theme into an art piece, I thought of recording the path of the Sun. I decided to use the fish-eye lenses to completely capture the trace of the Sun from its sunrise to the sunset. The various traces appear in various area within the round frame seem the same but all different, different but all made by one and only Sun.

I can only pray that by presenting this image in various places in the world, we realize the smallness of ourselves, on this earth, equally blessed by the Sun and live hand in hand together, without any conflicts.

Izima Kaoru, who was born in Kyoto in 1954, has been working on “Landscapes with a Corpse” since 1993. This year he delivered the 44^th series. The first book which contains series No. 01 to 20 appeared in 1999. In the meantime, Izima Kaoru’s works have been regularly presented at single exhibitions in his galleries in Cologne, London, New York and Munich, and on international artfairs in Paris, Brüssel, London, Cologne, Basel und Miami, accompanied by the now fourth book. At the present time his works can be seen at the exhibition “Tokyo-Berlin.Berlin-Tokyo” in the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin as well as at “Erblätterte Identitäten” (Foliated Identities) in the Stadthaus Ulm. 

His work is virtually growing to a cyclopaedia in which the connections between the terms beauty, eroticism, violence, death, dream, disentanglement and phantasm are played through in manifold and almost inexhaustible variations. This inexhaustibility is partly due to the fact that the single series are generated congenially with the actresses and triggered off by the question “How would you like to die?”. From our western point of view, on the other hand, nothing would be considered more Japanese than this consequence of aesthetic persistence. For in such abundance, and with simultaneous recurrence, the individual expression and appearance melt to an allegory, the story of the unfortunate death becomes a parable. 

It’s Izima Kaoru’s participation at the exhibition “Tokyo-Berlin…” that beautifully exemplifies how much value has meanwhile been attached to his work.