NADAV KANDER – BODIES – 6 WOMEN, 1 MAN
2012-12-17Coated in white marble dust and set against the void of the photographer’s studio, the subjects of Nadav Kander’s BODIES. 6 Women, 1 Man serve as monumental studies of the human condition.
Far from the airbrushed perfection that permeates images of nudity in popular culture, Nadav Kander presents us with honest photographs of the human form. The ‘bodies’ featured reference the forms of the classical and renaissance past, whilst modernising the genre of the nude to act as a tool for philosophical investigation. Faces turned from the viewer, but bodies offered completely, the forms invite the meditation and self-reflection customarily associated with religious iconography and tomb sculpture. Kander has cited Elizabethan notions of purity as an influence for his bleached treatment of the auburn haired bodies.
The subjects are placed awkwardly, contorted and twisted or bowed reverently. In Audrey with Toes and Wrist Bent (2011) the form reclines, her toes and fingers curled uncomfortably from limbs. Flaws laid bare, the figure is exposed and vulnerable to our gaze. It is this sense of vulnerability, and of humanity stripped of its defences that Kander investigates as a point of beauty.
Exhibition runs from January 11th to February 9th, 2013
Flowers Gallery
21 Cork Street
London
W1 3LZ
