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. 
Project Space - JO MITCHELL
DOUBLE SUICIDE
7 MARCH - 20 APRIL 2002

f a projects is pleased to announce an installation of new work by Jo Mitchell in the gallery project space. A large-scale cut-out piece will dominate the space. The word 'Suicide' and its mirror image, each over 2 meters long, create a symmetrical diptych, representing the positive and negative, one in full colour, the other monochromatic. Mitchell herself links this to an effect employed by Warhol, in his iconic diptychs.

Jo Mitchell has used words as the basis of her work over the last two years. Her emphasis is on the style and form of these words, which become disconnected from their meaning. The words are often undecipherable amongst the pointed calligraphic peaks and swirling lines of the image, which transform them into abstract entities. The stylised design of the works becomes a 'tag' type image signifying the subcultural genre of graffiti and tattoo. The words used - sin; agony; mayhem; and lust - taken from tattoo magazines and books, continue the play on the shifting relation between the works’ form and the words’ meaning. Mitchell's focus is on reproducing these familiar tags in a new graphic. Although she uses graffiti and tattoo imagery, her intervention creates a symbol for a more personal aesthetic.

The visual immediacy of the work belies the labour intensive process of its creation, which involves cutting out identical words from a chosen material, either card or plastic vinyl, and then spray-painting each layer in a different colour. The cut-outs are then layered, giving the images a sense of depth.

Mitchell completed her MA at Goldsmiths in 1999, winning the Warden's Purchase Prize. She has exhibited in the UK and abroad, most recently at Cell Space; The Jerwood Gallery; The Nunnery and in Florence and Berlin.