At first glance they appear to be ordinary objects — a designer dress, a top hat, a high-heeled boot. But after closer examination, the viewer realizes that sliced peas have been fastened to the dress lining; the surface of the hat has been crafted from sardines with eyes staring into your soul for their time has clearly run out; that the stiletto boot has been stitched together using ark clam shells with a fish head tip. Michiko Kon’s work is simultaneously seductively beautiful and shockingly disturbing. Michiko Kon: Cannibal Feast presents a collection of platinum palladium prints from the 1990’s in which Kon draws on her powerful imagination to create a tension between the real and the imagined, subtly manipulating the perceptions and sensations of her viewers. Michiko Kon’s dreamlike work parallels the intentions of the surrealists, specifically when looking at the work of Méret Oppenheim. Cannibal Feast (1959) a significant work by Oppenheim which inspired this exhibition’s title, featured a live woman (later replaced by a mannequin) garnished with fish, fruit and nuts. Oppenheim set the table with cutlery, inviting the spectator […]
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