KIMI WYLDE | THE WORK
STATEMENT
'Some people spend their entire lives trying to understand what art is all about, why it fascinates so many – holds them with invisible energy, hooks them completely – some spend their entire lives trying to understand the relationship between the artist and their work, almost like the endless arguments and searches about the bond between god and man. My starting point is my own image, addressing the idea of identity and who I am, in relation to the society within which I live.' (Kimi Wylde)
For Kimi Wylde, playing with her own image allows her to question what it represents. By doing so she touches upon core subjects such as voyeurism, popular iconography, kitsch and tacky aesthetic. From the cinema world (melodrama) to the cheap soap operas (melodrama); from the pop art movement starting with Roy Lichtenstein in the sixties, his take on modern society and media, to Cindy Sherman in the eighties, Wylde plays with the archetypal characters within society such as the housewife; intimate and banal actions like going to the toilet and overlooked 'dead moments' that society usually attempt to deny or hide. Like a director, Wylde constructs different scenarios within her photographs, often taking female roles in order to address different issues regarding narcissism, intrusion and manipulation of the media in peoples lives - Exemplifying the likes of reality TV, YouTube and the celebrity era.
Wylde source images from fashion photos, Internet, porn imagery, Manga cartoons as well as comics to appropriate art and life. In producing large scale colourful images she playfully appropriates other artists and creates photographic imagery that celebrates mirroring visual content with a personal take on the subject from a female point of view. She mixes rational perspectives with an irrational impulse. Essentially, the entire process is the path of understanding and dealing with subjects such as originality and identity, in both their conscious and unconscious forms.
Her current project explores a new medium - moving images. Again using herself, exploring the same aesthetic and with a strong cinematic influence: (Almodovar, David Lynch…). By questioning who is in control? through the relationships between the artist and the subject matter, Wylde challenges both others and herself, progressing to a more challenging cinematographic arena. Subsequently, she is successfully enhancing her understanding whilst broadening the conceptual base of her art practice.
'I believe I have my own perspective on subjects so popular and concrete in our time, which goes beyond the image, a take that defines me at the same time as it defines my work. I want in my exploration, to be at one with my art and nothing less and that means that my body and mind will be splashed there, like a deer that was hit by a truck, the horrible image of all its bloody guts and intestines, wide open for passers-by to see. This is what I strive to achieve in my works.' (Kimi Wylde)
CV
1983 Born in Israel, of German and Russian extraction Lives and works in London
EDUCATION
2009 BA in mixed Media Fine Art, The University of Westminster, London
2007 Performing Arts, City & Islington College (London)
2006 BTEC National Diploma Foundation Fine Arts, City & Islington College (London)
PROJECTS
2011 Currently working as a producer of a documentary about Neve Tzedek, the historical and now highly fashionable Tel Aviv neighbourhood where internationally renowned sculptors, musicians, poets and architects made their iconic statements in the late 20th Century. The film is due to be released in 2012 and will include interviews with the groundbreaking masters.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 ‘Cheap and Dames’ Finsbury Park
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011 Arteria M11 Group Exhibition, Poland
2011 DEBUT Contemporary, Preview Night — Notting Hill
2010 Mixed Media Fine Art joint show — P3 Gallery, Marylebone, London
2010 ‘Big Deal 3’ — Camden High Street, London
2010 ‘Balagan’ group exhibition — Tel Aviv
2009 The Foundry, Old Street — “Art Crunch Now”, hosted by Aaron Barshak
2008 Tiger Artstock’ — combined exhibition at the fringe festival Stoke Newington