chromogenic print from an edition of 8 + 2 Artist’s Proofs

Artwork date: 2010
Exhibited: Another example from this edition exhibited at Stevenson, Cape Town, Parasomnia (solo show), 19 January to 25 February 2012. Another example from this edition exhibited at 55th Venice Biennale, Italy, The Encyclopaedic Palace, 1 June to 24 November 2013. Another example from this edition exhibited at City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand, Lexicon (solo show), 22 March to 15 June 2014.
Literature: Lange, C. (2012). ‘Seven Subjects You Shouldn’t Photograph (Or should you?)’. Frieze: Contemporary Arts and Culture magazine, #164, another example from this edition illustrated in colour. Online version of article available at: https://frieze.com/article/seven-subjects-youshouldn% E2%80%99t-photograph Sassen, V. (2011). Viviane Sassen – Parasomnia. Munich: Prestel, another example from this edition illustrated in colour, unpaginated. Schuman, A. (2012). ‘Viviane Sassen: Parasomnia’. Apeture magazine, #206, another example from this edition illustrated in colour on p.60.

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79 x 64 cm

Notes:

Marrying the polish of fashion photography to the critical eye of documentary, Viviane Sassen’s images elude easy definition. ‘I like to ask questions rather than give answers,’ the artist told TIME magazine, a strategy that amplifies the viewer’s experience of wonder. Although formally promiscuous and conceptually wideranging, what unifies Sassen’s work is its distinctive visual dynamism, combining bold colour, form pushed to the point of near-abstraction and a graphic use of light and shadow. It is no surprise that Sassen has left her mark on fashion and art world alike, shooting awardwinning campaigns for Stella McCartney, Adidas and Missoni and winning the Prix de Rome, the major Dutch prize for art, in 2007.Solomon’s Knot is the photographer doing what she does best: training her lens on bodies swathed in fabric. The tightly compressed space of the image is disorienting, almost claustrophobic, and reduces the titular figures to layers of pattern and line. Their skin becomes yet another surface on which light can play, acquiring the same sheen as the textiles that envelop them. But there is an undercurrent of intimacy here, suggested by the lazy arrangement of limbs, that prevents these anonymous models from becoming simply accessories. They are made more beautiful, and somehow stranger, for it. Sassen pursues such beauty relentlessly, and she is very adept at finding it.

Anna Stielau