Young artists test the limits of photography at Foam Talent’s London show
What form can a photograph take in 2017? Don’t expect just pictures on walls. ‘Every year we are again very curious to see how young talents are experimenting with photography on the very edges of the medium,’ says Foam Talent curator Mirjam Kooiman.
Now, Foam has arrived in London to show us photographs not as we know them: camera-less pictures, 3D objects, installations, wallpapers, lightboxes, beamers and projections are among just some of the formats on show at their showcase of 24 artists at Beaconsfield Gallery in Vauxhall.
As well as playing with the physical form of photography, these artists also dismantle its function in relation to places, people space, and time. Among the young photographers (they’re all under the age of 35) carving out new ways of seeing is South African artist Nico Krijno, a sculptor and photographer, who’s work is ‘sculptural in its construction of the very image itself’, Kooiman explains. His Sculpture Studies — part of his selected series Fabricated to be Photographed — gently mock both artistic media, assemblages made out of every day detritus, posing proudly for the camera.
[Untitled, 2012-14, by Samuel Gratacap, from the series Empire
Editing and presentation are also the focus of British artist Felicity Hammond. To create Capitol Growth (2015) she took photos of photos — real estate ads, renderings and architectural plans for luxury living — creating a kind of digital impasto which she manipulates with software and prints again on a large-scale, fashioning them into installations.
Where some photographers connect us to reality by complicating our viewing experience, others use documentary methods but distance us from what we think we know: Mexican photographer Sofia Ayarzagoitia almost exclusively shoots people and places in her hometown of Monterrey — but the works are more of self-portrait than a story about what happens in front of the camera.
In parallel, award-winning Instagram star Juno Calypso presents photographs of herself, taken in a love hotel in the US (designed for couples), reflecting more on universal ideals of romance, female fantasy and the industry of love than they reveal about the woman who looks at herself in the mirror.
This, Foam suggests, represents what photography is now: a fusion of techniques, an atmosphere of real and hyperreal, where documentary is fiction and fantasy is truth.
INFORMATION
‘Foam Talent’ is on view until 18 June 2017. For more information, visit the Foam website
ADDRESS
Beaconsfield
22 Newport Street
London SE11 6AY
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.
-
Sir Kenneth Grange’s influential industrial designs are chronicled in a new book
‘Kenneth Grange: Designing the Modern World’ explores the life and work of the pioneering British industrial designer
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Chin, chin! Asprey’s new Peninsula London boutique raises the bar
Asprey barware designs from the house’s joyful, jazz-era back catalogue are available at its new boutique in The Peninsula, London
By Caragh McKay Published
-
Step inside Precious Okoyomon’s post-apocalyptic forest in Madrid
In Madrid, Precious Okoyomon and Hans Ulrich Obrist reconvene for Obrist’s annual site-specific curation for Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
By Will Jennings Published
-
Fetishism, violence and desire: Alexis Hunter in London
‘Alexis Hunter: 10 Seconds’ at London's Richard Saltoun Gallery focuses on the artist’s work from the 1970s, disrupting sexual stereotypes
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Wayne McGregor’s new work merges genetic code, AI and choreography
Company Wayne McGregor has collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a series of works, ‘Autobiography (v95 and v96)’, at Sadler’s Wells (12 – 13 March 2024)
By Rachael Moloney Published
-
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley confronts gaming, VR and rebirth at Studio Voltaire
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley has opened her first institutional solo exhibition, ‘THE REBIRTHING ROOM’, at Studio Voltaire, London
By Hannah Silver Published
-
At Sadie Coles HQ, artists bring a playful sensuality to lamps
Sadie Coles HQ’s ‘Shine On’ exhibition in London features sculptural lighting by Sarah Lucas, Urs Fischer, and more (until 27 April 2024)
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Peter Blake’s sculptures spark joy at Waddington Custot in London
‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, at London's Waddington Custot, spans six decades of the artist's career
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Step into Yoko Ono’s immersive world at Tate Modern
‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’ spans the artist and activist's work from the 1950s to the present day
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The Royal Ballet celebrates new talent in choreography with edgy set design
The Royal Ballet Festival of New Choreography encompasses performances and events at the Royal Opera House in London
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Don’t miss: ‘The Mother & The Weaver’ dissects the complexity of motherhood
‘The Mother & The Weaver’ at the Foundling Museum, London, looks at the complex role of the mother in art from the Ursula Hauser Collection
By Hannah Silver Published