MEL BLES
PAUL CUPIDO
VIVIANE SASSEN
The body has been a central subject since the beginning of photography. Today, we see contemporary artists exploring this form in new ways – relinquishing control to reveal vulnerability, rawness, tenderness and freedom.
We need new means of representing the evolving ideas around identity, particularly gender identity. Abandon features 3 contemporary artists - Mel Bles, Paul Cupido and Viviane Sassen - who present approaches that are primal and proud, sometimes intrusive but always compelling.
The selected photographs allow us to reflect on how we move through the world. The choice to express ourselves freely is a luxury - there’s a power to this, and it should be celebrated.
MEL BLES
PAUL CUPIDO
VIVIANE SASSEN
The body has been a central subject since the beginning of photography. Today, we see contemporary artists exploring this form in new ways – relinquishing control to reveal vulnerability, rawness, tenderness and freedom.
We need new means of representing the evolving ideas around identity, particularly gender identity. Abandon features 3 contemporary artists - Mel Bles, Paul Cupido and Viviane Sassen - who present approaches that are primal and proud, sometimes intrusive but always compelling.
The selected photographs allow us to reflect on how we move through the world. The choice to express ourselves freely is a luxury - there’s a power to this, and it should be celebrated.
“Mel’s video work ‘On Rhythms’ was completely hypnotic and immediately made me feel lighter. I wanted, through the images and words, to inspire a sense of release in others.”
_ DIANA ON WHY ‘ABANDON’
MEL BLES
“Photography, film, for me is liberation. Every project, be it in the realms of fashion or art is a moment to explore. To understand better, to experiment, to live in the now. To let go.”
_ BLES RESPONDING TO ‘ABANDON’ (AUG 2019)
Mel Bles has created vibrant and original fashion photographs for over a decade. In contrast to her fast-paced fashion images, her personal work, ‘Islands’ and ‘On Rhythms’, enables her to slow down, study the body and its movements from every angle, working intimately with her subjects. In ‘Islands’, the curves of bodies echo the rippling arcs of sand dunes and cloud formations.
For ‘On Rhythms’, Bles documents women who are not dancers but who use their bodies to express pure joy and unrestrained movement – unguarded, wild and free.
PAUL CUPIDO
The artworks are full of magic and melancholic beauty – occupying that liminal space between heartache and happiness.
“This (Abandon) is about the most primordial emotions for both humans and animals… your body and mind are fighting and resisting fiercely.”
_ CUPIDO RESPONDING TO ‘ABANDON’ (AUG 2019)
Paul Cupido is on an endless quest for meaning within the poignant reality that moments, relationships, indeed life itself, will inevitably end.
In Éphémère, Cupido seeks to highlight this vulnerability, alongside the strength that arises from our profound connection with nature. The moonlit landscapes, captured far from home (in Japan and the Brazilian Amazon), show shifting forms and bodies somewhere between night and day.
VIVIANE SASSEN
“When I look at these pictures, I don’t see that much sexual desire; I see a great desire to express oneself, to liberate – a great joy for life and a willingness to surrender.”
_ SASSEN RESPONDING TO ‘ABANDON’ (AUG 2019)
Viviane Sassen’s work spans performance, photography and installation as well as design, collage, and fashion. In Roxane II, Sassen and her muse Roxane Danset articulate a disintegration of boundaries between artist and subject, alongside a unique synergetic creativity.
Roxane is caught in her own world, her own fantasy, without inhibitions. This limitless feeling is heightened through dynamic poses, movements, dramatic shadows and vibrant painterly gestures.
“To empower oneself, not only by showing strength but also vulnerability.”
_ SASSEN RESPONDING TO ‘ABANDON’ (AUG 2019)
The dichotomy in Sassen’s work – simultaneously sensual and delicate, yet disorientating and disturbing – invites the viewer to respond freely.
