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May 4 to August 25, 2007
MIWA YANAGI - Deutsche Bank Collection
Miwa
Yanagi (*1967, Japan) Elevator Girl House B4, 1998; From the series
Elevator Girls;
C-Print on Plexiglass; Deutsche Bank Collection; © Miwa Yanagi,
Kyoto
Miwa Yanagi: Deutsche Bank Collection will open
at the Chelsea Art Museum—Home of The Miotte Foundation in
New York on May 4 and run through August 25, 2007. The first solo
exhibition for this Japanese artist in the US will feature more
than 30 photographs representing three unique bodies of work, and
a new video work. After its presentation at Chelsea Art Museum,
the exhibition will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston
in February 2008.
Miwa Yanagi, who lives in Kyoto, Japan, was selected as Deutsche
Bank’s 2004 Artist of the Business Year with an exhibition
at Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin featuring her first two series,
Elevator Girls and My Grandmothers. The newest
works from the Fairy Tale series will be added and be on
view together in New York for the first time.
The compelling photographs of Miwa Yanagi explore themes depicting
the role of women in the context of Japanese society, yet reflect
the archetypal concerns of many women across cultures. Mixing both
the imaginary and the real, Yanagi conjures compelling visions using
theatrical set-ups and mesmerizing color. Elevator Girls,
started in 1993, first gained international attention for the artist,
and My Grandmothers, begun in 1999, is based directly on
conversations with the women who apply to be her models. The most
recent Fairy Tale series, mainly shot in black and white,
further examine female roles as they are mythologized in fairy tales
specifically by the ancient Greeks, Hans Christian Andersen and
the Brothers Grimm.
Dorothea Keeser, president and co-founder of the Chelsea Art Museum
commented, "We are very pleased to be hosting the first American
exhibition of Miwa Yanagi, whose powerful explorations of the mythology
and iconography surrounding the portrayal of women are a potent
addition to our programming. In addition, we are delighted to enter
into this collaboration with Deutsche Bank."
“Supporting living contemporary artists through purchases,
commissions and exhibition sponsorships has been a commitment by
Deutsche Bank for over 25 years,” said Friedhelm Huette, Director
and Curator, Deutsche Bank Art, Frankfurt. “We are thrilled
to be able to bring to New York audiences for the first time an
overview of work to date by this exceptional artist, including new
works never before seen.”
About the Series
Elevator Girls
For the Elevator Girls series, identically clothed female
models pose within surrealistic architecture where anonymity and
interchangeability echo their own psychic predicament. Featured
in groups and in contrast to the cool, synthetic environments that
surround them, the photographs present women themselves as display
items as they gaze at architectural models and objects of consumer
desire. According to Yanagi, Elevator Girls is about "myself
and other Japanese women" who feel the kind of standardization
that exists in modern Japanese society and elsewhere.
My Grandmothers
In the ongoing My Grandmothers series, Miwa Yanagi creates
a response to the youth of “Elevator Girls” by projecting
the dreams of young women into the future 50 years forward. After
talking with her collaborating models, the artist creates images
depicting their personal visions of life in old age, accompanied
by poetically evocative texts based on the conversations. The young
models have been professionally altered by make-up and digital manipulation
and, like all of Yanagi’s work, the images invite viewer interpretation.
Fairy Tales
Yanagi’s latest series explore famous children’s stories,
such as Rapunzel and Snow White, which deal with
relationships between young girls and older women. These often disturbing
narratives that have been passed down through European folk lore,
are points of departure for the artist’s exploration of the
underlying significance of the tales, ones which are often violent
and cruel. Etched into our collective memories, but presented through
the artist’s lens, the images examine and twist the mythologies
further using masks, wigs, mixed race models and female children
dressed as older women.
About the Artist
Miwa Yanagi was born in Kobe, Japan in 1967 and completed her post
graduate courses at Kyoto City University of Arts. Her work has
been exhibited in solo and group shows in museums worldwide, including
Deutsche Guggenheim and Guggenheim Bilbao, the Ludwig Museum, Budapest
and the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Japan. More information
at www.yanagimiwa.net.
Catalogue:
Miwa Yanagi Deutsche Bank Collection with texts by Ariane
Grigoteit, Friedhelm Huette, Manon Slome, Anne Tucker, Peter Herbstreuth,
Dominique Gonzalez-Forster, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Chizuko Ueno In
English, 80 pages, $30.00
Organized by:
Deutsche Bank Art in collaboration with Chelsea Art Museum—Home
of The Miotte Foundation
www.community.db.com/htm/yanagi.html
Press contact:
Shannon Heth, Blue Medium Inc
212-675-1800
shannon@bluemedium.com
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