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Ivan Forde "Putting on the Sky"
Koki Arts
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Artists
Ivan Forde
Recognized for innovations in the cyanotype process on epic scales, Ivan Forde’s practice is primarily concerned with poetic symbols, and how they change, or stay the same, in different contexts. The works on view coalesce into a multi-sensory environment spanning alternative process photography, printmaking, scent, sound and video performance, and wearable sculptures. Drawing inspiration from depictions of the seascape in visual art such as Ashley Brian’s collages of Langston Hughes poetry, Romare Bearden watercolors and Chris Ofili’s oil paintings of Homer’s Odyssey, Botticelli's and Rauchenberg’s Dante drawings, William Blake’s mezzotints of Paradise Lost, Hokusai and Kuniyoshi woodblock prints depicting the ocean; and visiting Giotto’s Scrovegni chapel in Padua, the suite of paintings demonstrate Ivan Forde’s maturing practice that is steeped in the long tradition of artists making work informed by their engagement with poetic texts.
Ivan Forde has produced cyanotype-based works for close to a decade and has influenced contemporary approaches to the early photographic process through painting and collage. Forde uses the process of underpainting to explore the poetics of the surface and texture of the ocean in this group of seascape paintings. He uses bright fluorescent colors on raw linen, building up dimensional fields and abstracted gestures. The underpainting is then covered with ultra-thin Kozo (mulberry) paper that has been emulsified with cyanotype solution exposed to sunlight and washed out with water to fix the image. The translucent Kozo on linen allows viewers to see through to the bright colors beneath only while looking head-on at the artwork, while from a side view, the vibrant colors disappear leaving only the blue visible. In this way, Forde is making statements on the effect of light and color under direct and peripheral vision, questioning whether we see things more clearly through direct gaze or from the corner of our eyes. Metaphorically, he relates these concepts to epic poems and histories that are in the center or on the margins and explores what happens to the understanding of identity when peripheral histories are seen from a central point of view, and centered histories through peripheral vision.
Ivan Forde has produced cyanotype-based works for close to a decade and has influenced contemporary approaches to the early photographic process through painting and collage. Forde uses the process of underpainting to explore the poetics of the surface and texture of the ocean in this group of seascape paintings. He uses bright fluorescent colors on raw linen, building up dimensional fields and abstracted gestures. The underpainting is then covered with ultra-thin Kozo (mulberry) paper that has been emulsified with cyanotype solution exposed to sunlight and washed out with water to fix the image. The translucent Kozo on linen allows viewers to see through to the bright colors beneath only while looking head-on at the artwork, while from a side view, the vibrant colors disappear leaving only the blue visible. In this way, Forde is making statements on the effect of light and color under direct and peripheral vision, questioning whether we see things more clearly through direct gaze or from the corner of our eyes. Metaphorically, he relates these concepts to epic poems and histories that are in the center or on the margins and explores what happens to the understanding of identity when peripheral histories are seen from a central point of view, and centered histories through peripheral vision.
Schedule | Nov 17 (Fri) 2023-Dec 20 (Wed) 2023 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Nov 17 (Fri) 2023 18:00 - 20:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Venue | Koki Arts http://www.kokiarts.com/  | ||||
| Location | 1F Rose Bldg., 1-15-2 Higashi Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0031 | ||||
| Access | 1 minute walk from exit 4 at JR Bakurocho Station, 3 minute walk from exit A1 at Bakuro-yokoyama Station on the Toei Shinjuku line, 6 minute walk from exit B4 at Higashi-nihombashi Station on the Toei Asakusa line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-3865-8650 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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