French artist Jean-Vincent Simonet’s photographic practice pushes the poetics of chaos to the very limits, characterised by a penchant for sheer entropy and excess. In his first solo exhibition in London at Webber Gallery he will present his new project ‘In Bloom’. Part travel diary and part love letter to the cities of Tokyo and Osaka, ‘In Bloom’ is a searing, hyper-visual journey into the heart of Japanese underground culture and an ode to the overwhelming experience of seeing a place with the eyes of a stranger for the first time.
For Simonet, Japan has always had an aquatic, almost mythical status. His images – of which all are original analogue photographs – are transformed through experimental manipulations; metaphors for the slow process of feeling ingested by these fluid, mutating organisms. Printing his images onto plastic paper and sculptural resin so the ink never quite dries, Simonet uses water and chemicals, long exposure and torchlight to transform the surface of his prints, abstracting and blurring them as if the scenes are melting away.
On the opening night, the audience will be able to watch a live printing session by Simonet where he will chemically wash prints to create special editions of the book ‘In Bloom’ (SPBH Editions, 2018). The individually customised prints will be available to buy as a one-offs.
We would like to thank The Embassy of Switzerland for their kind support of the event.
