BILLET 10

A CONVERSATION WITH PHOTOGRAPHER HAL

Love has always been one of the most potent sources of inspiration for creative works. Japanese artist, Photographer Hal, however, depicts love with an exhilarating edge that is as intimate and psychological as it is visually captivating.

Hal’s preferred subjects or mediums for conveying the power of love are quite unassuming at face value: he photographs real couples surrounded by objects of their everyday lives. The delectable twist to this age-old narrative is that Hal vacuum-seals his subjects in plastic. 

His inspirations for this ongoing project, titled Zatsuran, range from the cosmic magnitude of black holes to the mundane miracle of an embryo surrounded by amniotic fluid in the womb. Likewise, Hal’s couples’ bodies are molded against each other in a claustrophobic embrace, their personal paraphernalia suctioned to their bodies in parallel intensity. 

The resulting image, captured from above, is a stunning snapshot of the acute psychological vulnerability and thrilling urgency of falling in love. 

In this exclusive interview, Photographer Hal keys us in on his creative process and tells us about his views on the power of love.

THE FINE PRINT: Much of your work focuses on themes of love and relationships; how do you find couples to photograph? 

PHOTOGRAPHER HAL: I look for couples any time, anywhere. Some couples were found by social media, some couples I found in bars [or] night clubs, some couples e-mailed me. In the early days, I was attracted to showy people; recently I have been interested in any kinds of people.

TFP: How do your subjects usually react to the photos of themselves and their partners?

HAL: Every one [of my subjects] was surprised by their picture, and [they all] liked it. I was glad that everyone said it became a good memory of themselves.

TFP: Your photographs of couples in intimate settings have progressed quite naturally from couples in bathtubs (“Couple Jam”) to couples in vacuum-sealed bags (“Flesh Love”, “Zatsuran”). Do you remember how the idea of the vacuum-sealed bag came to you?

HAL: I am always inspired by the formal elements of my work. I think that the fun of couple photography is in a couple’s degree of [physical] adhesion. When a couple is photographed outside they may be shy, but [when photographed in private,] they can manifest their passionate love by embracing tightly. This physical adhesion expresses the depth of their love. After publishing the photobook, Couple Jam, I sought out a material that could envelop or stick a couple with everyday articles from their lives. [What I came up with was] the vacuum bag used for bedding. 

TFP: How exactly do you shoot the vacuum-sealed photos? 

HAL: I construct photographic sets in my own kitchen. The lights are in the ceiling, so I just flip one switch and have everything ready. I have a few different colored paper backgrounds, which I leave rolled up in the corner.

After the couple gets in the vacuum pack, I suck the air out with a vacuum cleaner until there’s none left. This gives me 10 seconds to take the shot. In this extremely limited time I can’t release the shutter more than twice. 

TFP: How do the potential danger and time limit affect the meaning or essence of your work?

HAL: As the shooting continues over multiple takes, the pressure of the vacuum seal grows stronger. At the same time, the two bodies start to communicate, and whether through unevenness of limbs or the curve of joints they begin to draw a shape of what they want to express. The two lovers draw closer until they finally transform into a single being.

TFP: When creating series like “Flesh Love” and “Zatsuran”, do you or do the couples in the photo choose what they wear and what objects are included?

HAL: You see naked models in these series. Most couples brought 2 or 3 changes of clothing to the studio, naked being one variation of costume. The couple and I would decide on the costumes for the shoot so that they may express themselves as much as possible. 

TFP: I hear you are sponsored by Condomania; how did this wonderful partnership form?

HAL: I got an email one day from an ad company proposing a collaboration between  the “Flesh Love” series and a condom company. I thought it matched with Flesh Love, so I decided to go ahead with [the collaboration]. It’s a wonderful thing that there is demand in society for my artwork. The contract has already finished, [but] if any opportunity like this arises again, I would like to do it again.

TFP: Could you explain the idea behind your professional name “Photographer Hal”?

HAL: I go by the name Photographer Hal. [The name] comes from regarding myself as some kind of vicious computer machine like in Space Odyssey since I like to take pictures like machines such as purikura photo sticker booths. I know how people can use these sticker booths to express themselves. I respect that and just try to capture this essence [in my photography].

TFP: You yourself have been photographed in the vacuum-sealed bag; how does it feel?

HAL: You can see a shrinked profile photo of me [in the vacuum-sealed bag] in the Zatsuran photo book. In the early days I went in there myself. It made me feel fear, but after a while I got used to it. I think the photographer should know what the models feel.

TFP: Would you recommend a photoshoot with you as couple’s therapy?

HAL: To see my work and to participate in my shoots is a good chance to reconfirm and reconsider a relationship with a lover.

TFP: Finally, after contemplating love throughout your career and working with so many couples, what are your thoughts on love?

HAL: I think that love is the most important thing on earth. I think that everything in the world begins with focusing on love. I am currently seeking new dimensions in portrait photography by challenging the majestic theme of mankind, defined through love. To express the strength of love I decided to choose couples as a subject. I intend to visualize this power of love by adhering and unifying couples. The smaller the distance between them, the stronger the power. The law of gravity also shows the pull is stronger when two objects become closer; and glue, too, is stronger when it is applied thinner. To be adhered shows their [love’s] strength [which is why] I decided to vacuum-pack couples as a method of expressing coherence.

Photography PHOTOGRAPHER HAL

For more pictures, go to: http://thefineprintmagazine.com/the-transition-issue-a-conversation-with-photographer-hal/

Please contact Estelle Gervais by email for more information. 

BILLET 9

THE BOUNDARY-BREAKING ART OF YUNG JAKE

“Make it new.”

This phrase, uttered by legendary editor, artist and writer Ezra Pound, should crawl into the mind of a contemporary artist at various points in their career. The void between the modern artist and art itself is brimming with technology – new mediums of presentation, new platforms for one to display art, the pixels of a computer screen have become the glimmering tiles of a floor, guiding the viewer to an art exhibit. The art world has taken an overwhelming, and perhaps even a metaphysical turn – what is there? The most feasible way of understanding such ideas would be to communicate from within the realm of contemporary, computerized art.

Enter Yung Jake – a cyber-rap-artist, who insists that he was “born on the internet in 2011”. Such a claim may seem humorous and a wink at the artist’s platform – until the audience tries to dig deeper, only to find that there is little evidence to suggest where Yung Jake truly came to be. A biography is irrelevant, however, as this is an instance where the artist is a reflection of his medium, rather than vice versa. 

Yung Jake is perhaps best known for his incredibly detailed, post-paintbrush portraits of pop culture celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Rihanna, etc., using emojis. The result of these portraits is a resemblance to stained glass murals found in churches and other places of worship; such a comparison reflects the modern day obsession and religious connection people seem to have for these larger than life celebrities — and to be immortalized with the use of the newly surfacing emoji trend causes a confrontation between the audience and the constant oscillation of this computer age.  Yung Jake flaunts his creative, avant-swag through interactive online experiences – most of which are usually accompanied by one of Jake’s own music videos. These interactive pieces are intrusive, jarring and demand attention. The 2013 piece entitled e.m-bed.de/d strips the viewer of any control they may have thought they had. With e.m-bed.de/d, Yung Jake hones internet-borne concepts and incorporates them while a video for the eponymous song plays on the main window. Ads pop up without warning, windows minimize and close erratically – it is as if someone is operating the platform from within; as if Yung Jake had climbed back into the womb of the internet which he claims to have given birth to him, and is pulling the strings of this hypnotically unique experience. More recently, the music video for his song Both comes as a splicing of art and rap on an interactive platform; Jake unleashes the piece via social media. The video for Both was released on the app Snapchat – but it was released split in half. The viewer must add both accounts created by Jake, on two different mobile devices and place the devices side by side in order to experience the full picture. Is this a direct commentary on the fragmentation of the postmodern art world? Or simply another trippy example of Yung Jake’s ability to fuck hip-hop and interactive art together?

For more pictures, go to: http://thefineprintmagazine.com/pushed-from-the-pussy-of-the-internet-the-boundary-breaking-art-of-yung-jake/

Please contact Estelle Gervais by email for more information. 

YUNG JAKE'S ART 

YUNG JAKE'S ART 

YUNG JAKE'S ART 

BILLET 8

If you are an unusual footwear lover, you have certainly heard of Amélie Pichard. The 32-years-old French designer is known for her unique bags and shoes and are anything but mainstream. Her creations, like herself, are unconventional and sophisticated. Her work has been published in crème de la crème fashion publications and has already reached a major female audience worldwide. As of now, she collaborated with shoe brand Le Coq Sportif, eyewear designer Garrett Leight and, more recently, the woman who made the red bathing suit a staple of the Nineties: Pamela Anderson, for a very personal and special project. Hard working and devoted to her passion, she graduated top of her class from Mod’Art Paris, a fashion design and creation school. Thereafter, she worked for renowned names such as Sonia Rykiel or Dice Kayek, but the most memorable encounter she made was with Madame Germaine, an authentic and traditional shoemaker from Paris. This woman had a life-changing impact on Amélie and taught her the basic knowledge of creating a pair of shoes from scratch. Footwear design became her number one obsession. Fascinated by its creation process, the apprentice was then taken under the wing of orthopaedic boot-maker Eric Lomain. It was just the beginning of a promising adventure, where Amélie will be creating bags and shoes under her name and become a successful accessories designer. After winning the “BATA shoe contest for young designers” in 2009, she launched her eponymous label AMELIEPICHARD in 2010, hitting the fashion industry with her unexpected and innovative creations. Mainly inspired by the TV-series she used to watch as a kid, where American bimbos were the main protagonists. She knows how to bring back tacky clichés from the past and she reinterprets them into improbable contemporary creations. In all of her collections, she deals with a minimal extravagance by remarkably giving her designs a new approach on what people consider ‘kitsch’.

For more pictures, go to: http://thefineprintmagazine.com/profile-amelie-pichard/

Please contact Estelle Gervais by email for more information. 

BILLET 7

Art today increasingly breaks down the barriers between the traditional categories assigned to artistic practices during the art historical canon. Lines are continuously being blurred between low and high art, painting and sculpture, etc… Holton Rower fits well in this category of contemporary artists exploring and experimenting with different media and techniques to see how far these boundaries can be moved around.

Grandson of Alexander Calder, he inevitably grew up surrounded by art, but also by a large amount of materials used in the construction business owned by his father. Best known for his “pour paintings,” where he pours up to 50 gallons of different brightly colours paints over blocks and panels. However, he works in a range of techniques, including assemblage, sculpture, installation, and painting. His pour paintings seem to find themselves somewhere between art and sculpture, as the paint pours and spreads around the object it is being poured on. The concentric circles formed from the excessive layering of paint morph themselves with the object, creating abstract psychedelic patterns in and around the object. Nevertheless, while these sculpture-paintings are entirely un-representational, Rower’s intelligent use of chance and gravity creates wonderful artworks that resemble elements seen in the natural world, such as tree trunk circles, or even the beautiful, vibrantly coloured geysers at Yellowstone National Park.

Since the early 1990s, Rower has been in numerous solo exhibitions, as well as a few group ones. He was last exhibited at the Hole Gallery in New York (2013), but has also been featured at the Galerie Maeght in both Barcelona (2001) and Paris (1998), the Moving Museum in Dubai (2013), and the Shizaru Gallery in London (2011).

For more pictures, go to: http://thefineprintmagazine.com/profile-holton-rower/

Please contact Estelle Gervais by email for more information. 

BILLET 6

Clio Peppiat’s boldly coloured and painstakingly detailed designs pack a real feminine, feminist punch.

The 24-year-old, South London-based designer recently presented her sci-fi inspired SS16 Collection “Kiss the Future” at London Fashion Week. Drawing from cult sci-fi films like Blade Runner and The Fifth Element, Peppiat brings laser stun guns and UFOs into her signature mix of kitsch and cute.

But make no mistake, as cute and girly as all that bubblegum pink and Polly Pocket purple may be, Peppiatt’s foundational philosophy is nothing to belittle. Since launching her label in 2014, Clio Peppiatt has made a point of exploring femininity in her designs, with the primary mandate of her work being to allow women to feel “happy, bold, and fearless.”

Everything she creates, from the purple leopard prints to the smiling cartoon clouds, unapologetically embraces the traditional “girly.” Her process also incorporates techniques historically associated with women and domestic crafts such as embroidery, crochet, and beading. All of these elements come together as Peppiatt builds each piece in layers of texture and colour from holographic latex to orange fur trim to sparkly rainbow appliqués.

Above all, Peppiat’s creations are just positive and fun. The SS16 collection, for instance, features silver beaded alien heads over a sheer purple top. Another piece sees a cat chasing a sparkly computer “mouse” over lavender and eggplant leather. All of the handbags of the collection, in addition to being decked out in hot pink snake print and happy silver clouds, have built in portable chargers for the tech-savvy modern lady. Peppiatt truly makes the future for women look shiny and adorable.

For more pictures, go to: http://thefineprintmagazine.com/clio-peppiat-ss16/

Please contact Estelle Gervais by email for more information. 

BILLET 5

Humans have an undeniable fascination with the morbid, the disfigured and the unknown. It has always been this way. Rubbernecking at people who have lost limbs, succumbed to burns on their bodies or faces – there is something that drives us to stare at corporal disfigurements. Why do we shy away from these subconscious, surreal interests?  

Brooklyn-based artist Christian Rex Van Minnen does not distance himself from swollen, curled or incomplete artistic representations of the body. His pieces present Dali-esque visions of the human body, manipulated in ways that contort the very essence of what it means to be a human soul within a rational fleshy body.

Van Minnen creates beautiful portraits, with the foreground’s vivid colours highlighted by subtle, darkened backgrounds. If looked upon from a distance, one could perhaps surmise that these paintings are carefully directed portraits of famous politicians or thinkers. It is not until one is brought face to fleshy, bulbous face with the true characters of Van Minnen’s work. Faces lacking humanistic features, sporting bubbling or elongated excess skin; wrinkled heads with cartoon-like faces seemingly tattooed on; colourful, gelatinous entities propped atop sets of human shoulders – these are only a few of the surreal manipulations that Van Minnen takes on when presenting these displays of the viscerally humane.  

Van Minnen has had solo exhibits from Seattle to Los Angeles to Copenhagen, with the most recent – Golden Memes – being displayed in 2015 at the Robischon Gallery in Denver. His pieces indeed blend the surreal, old-timey painting style with the contemporary. One piece, entitled “Duckface” – presumably referencing the social media selfie craze – presents an oblong head with a cartoon duck’s face etched upon the skin. A literal take on one of the many internet-borne concepts.

The work of Christian Rex Van Minnen can be found on his website as well as on his Instagram account. His representing galleries include the Gallery Poulson in Copenhagen, as well as the aforementioned Robischon Gallery. Keep up to date with his work – do not shy away from the uncommon or the disfigured – there is beauty found in all, and Christian Rex Van Minnen rarely misses in stating such.  

For more pictures, go to: http://thefineprintmagazine.com/profile-christian-rex-van-minnen/

Please contact Estelle Gervais by email for more information. 

BILLET 4

What would happen if you fell into a wormhole? Would you find yourself being transported to a distant land? What would the process look like? Would it be a perpetual blackness? Or would colours and shapes explode and whiz by you? There’s no answer to those questions here, but staring at a sculpture by Los-Angeles based artist Jen Stark might offer you possible theories to those questions.

Jen Stark’s 3D sculptures can be likened to the experience of looking at a series of objects found in nature through a microscope in your junior high biology class…If you ingested copious amounts of hallucinogens before class. Her sculptures, which are predominately created with paper (although she has experimented with wood, metal and plexi sculpturing as well), collapse into themselves in dizzying, cyclical, jagged and colourful ways. They stretch out from a base, beckoning the audience into their limitless pinpointed centers; daring the viewer to decipher where a corner begins and ends.

The effect of Stark’s sculptures is that of overwhelming immersion into the symmetrical, rainbow-infused kaleidoscope. Such intricacies and tactile layering can offer an appearance of infinite sequences, infinite processes and infinite destinations. Staring at a piece by Jen Stark may cause spiritual epiphanies; they may suck an audience in – much like a wormhole – and spit them out into a baffling world of optical ecstasy.

 Jen Stark also engages in 2D artwork – paintings, murals and billboards being a few of her mediums. These 2D creations, while unable to share the same intrusive and ever-stretching characteristics as Stark’s 3D sculptures, they still present chaotic, colourful landscapes, which seem to melt across the field onto which they are drawn.

It is no surprise that Stark was awarded the prestigious South Florida Cultural Consortium’s Visual and Media Artists Fellowship in 2008, as her meticulous, otherworldly approach is truly unique and offers a transcending experience of art. She has had solo exhibitions at the Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto, Ontario; the Martha Otero Gallery in Los Angeles and the City Arts Center in Oklahoma City, among many others. Follow Jen Stark on Instagram @jenstark and visit her website (http://www.jenstark.com/) for more awe-inspiring work.

For more pictures, go to: http://thefineprintmagazine.com/profile-jen-stark/

Please contact Estelle Gervais by email for more information.