Deadly obsession with fashion
In Japanese artist Izima Kaoru's world, death is sexy and murder scenes are erotic. Hence his ongoing project Landscapes With A Corpse, where Japanese models and actresses are invited to reveal their 'perfect death' fantasies - including which designer's gear they'd like to be clad in at the fateful moment - and enact them in front of his camera.
Latest instalment Koike Eiko Wears Gianni Versace is the centrepiece of the second exhibition from this project to go on show at FA Projects. The renowned busty model has chosen a typically revealing turquoise Versace number and has picked a gaudy pachinko hall in which to meet her end, surrounded by the spilled steel balls used to play this Japanese slot machine/pinball hybrid - the suggestion being she slipped on them.
The premise behind these works - why can't a corpse be beautiful? - is both a continuing question posed by artists (think, for example, of the pre-Raphaelite images of Ophelia drowning and, more pertinently, the stylised and often macabre work of fellow fashion photographer Guy Bourdin) and something quintessentially Japanese, a culture which, from the outside, seems obsessed with death and beauty.
Kaoru's colour-saturated images are filmic in their construction and execution: each captures the woman in a series of images, starting with a longshot, where she appears almost incidental to the scene around her, and ending with a close-up. They are beautiful and confrontational images that challenge you - and certainly polarise opinion.
Today until Jun 25, FA Projects, 1-2 Bear Gardens, Park Street SE1, Tue to Fri 10am to 6pm, Sat noon to 5pm, free. Tel: 020 7928 3228. Tube: Southwark
