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Preview: Jack Foley
GUY Bourdin has long held a reputation for taking unsettling,
even voyeuristic, photographs of women, such as the recent Opium
advert in which Sophie Dahl lay on her back with her legs splayed
open.
Now, the Victoria & Albert Museum plays host to an exhibition
of his work, until August 17, 2003.
According to the V&A's promotional material, at the heart
of Bourdin’s fashion photographs is a confrontation with
the very nature of commercial image making.
While conventional fashion images make beauty and clothing their
central elements, Bourdin’s photographs offer a radical alternative.
Guy Bourdin presented fashion as the luxurious embellishment
rather than the subject of his photographs.
He magnified to centre stage dark fantasies, of lust, consumption
and desire.
The fundamental significance of his photographs lies in Bourdin’s
knowledge that it is not fashion, but its image that seduces and
fascinates us.
Guy Bourdin was at the height of his career from the mid 1970s
to the early 1980s, and the first room of the exhibition concentrates
on these years, when Bourdin was working predominantly for French
Vogue and Charles Jourdan shoes.
As well as photographs, the display includes films that Bourdin
made on fashion shoots.
The photographs, slides and notebook pages in the second gallery
form a record of the images that Guy Bourdin chased throughout
his life.
They offer an insight into the thousands of observations he made
and his unrelenting capacity to shape his experiences into a visual
form.
Although the print qualities, camera formats and locations change
over time, the instinctive control that Bourdin exerted over his
subject matter is repeatedly played out. Together, they are like
his best fashion work – both brilliant and unsettling.
Events and Activities
Style Lounge: Guy Bourdin
Student Night
Wednesday, May 21
Part 1: 6.30-7.30pm, RCA Bar
Charlotte Cotton, curator of Guy Bourdin and special guests, including
Masoud Golsorkhi, editor of Tank, discuss the work of Guy Bourdin
in the lounge.
Part 2: 7.30-9.30pm, RCA Bar
Featuring a soundtrack to Guy Bourdin and showcasing new talent
in photography, fashion and video in response to the exhibition.
Tickets: £5
Tickets admit ticket holder to both Style Lounge elements, retain
your ticket for re-admission. Bookings 020 7942 2209.
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Events and Activities
Guy Bourdin Lecture & Critical Debate (Sunday, May
25, 3–5.15pm), Lecture Theatre
Rosetta Brooks, writer and critic, David Mellor, Professor of
Art History University of Sussex and Charlotte Cotton, the curator
of Guy Bourdin, give their responses to the intense, dramatic
and often subversive fashion photography of Guy Bourdin. Followed
by a lively panel discussion and audience questions.
Tickets: Lecture only: full £7, concessions £4
(full-time students and V&A members). Lecture and Guy Bourdin
exhibition admission: full £10, concessions £7 (full-time
students,V&A members). Bookings 0207 942 2209.
Fashion in Motion - Jean Paul Gaultier (Friday, May 30)
The V&A celebrates French designer Jean Paul Gaultier. The
fashion walks will feature garments personally selected by Gaultier
from his very first collections to his most recent.
Fashion shows at 1pm, 2.30pm, 4pm, 7pm & 8.30pm
Please note: numbers are strictly limited but free tickets
can be booked in advance through the V&A bookings office on
020 7942 2211/2218/2209 or email bookings.office@vam.ac.uk
Friday Late View - Shhh!! . . . Music for Museums. In association
with Les Inrockuptibles (Friday, July 25, 6.30–10pm).
A unique collaboration with French magazine Les Inrockuptibles
that showcases an evening of the most exciting and innovative
French music today, with exclusive peformances and very special
guests.
Tickets £15. Bookings 020 7942 2209
Publication
A book, entitled Guy Bourdin, edited by Charlotte Cotton and Shelly
Verthime, accompanies the exhibition. This book is the first thorough
investigation of Guy Bourdin’s compelling visions and includes
in-depth essays by Laurence Benaïm, Rosetta Brooks, Charlotte
Cotton, Philippe Garner and Shelly Verthime. It contains a breathtaking
sequence of images including previously unpublished photographs
and others not seen for over 25 years.
Price £35 (HB)
Image by Guy Bourdin 1983 © The Guy Bourdin Estate, 2003
ABOUT THE V&A:
The purpose of the Victoria and Albert Museum is to enable everyone
to enjoy its collections and explore the cultures that created
them; and to inspire those who shape contemporary design. All
of its efforts are focused upon a central purpose – the increased
use of its displays, collections and expertise as resources for
learning, creativity and enjoyment by audiences within and beyond
the United Kingdom.
Art Deco at the V&A, until July 20; Victoria and Albert
Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2RL. Opening
hours: 10am to 5.45pm, daily; 10am to 10pm, Wednesdays and the
last Friday of the month.
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