Katerina Jebb

Katerina Jebb (born 15 November 1962) is a British-born artist, photographer and film-maker.

After studying drama at St Anne's College, in 1984 she moved to California to study photography. Her first works were photomontages which she created inside the camera, originating from repeated exposure of a single roll of film.

In 1989, Jebb moved to Paris and worked for the French newspaper Libération.

In 1991, Jebb began to employ machines to make life-size images, primarily self-portraits, laying herself on a high-resolution scanning machine. Subsequently, she explored a greater diversity of techniques in parallel with the expanding possibilities in digital technology. Jebb proceeded to remove parts of the scanner to facilitate maximum extension of the subject. The duration of each passage of the scanner echoed early photographic principles, being seven minutes long, therefore demanding of the sitter to lie motionless for 28 minutes.^[1] The resulting images appeared in museums and galleries, notably The Whitney Museum as part of The Warhol Look (1998), a world touring retrospective. Her early work was subsequently published in Life, The Times and Vogue. She also uses domestic scanning machines, and composes multiple digital files to create an exact rendition of the original.

Simulacrum and Hyperbole, a 12 part series of videos featuring Tilda Swinton, Kristin Scott Thomas, Marisa Berenson and Kylie Minogue was exhibited at Gloria Maria Gallery^[2] Milan. In these works Jebb parodies contemporary consumerist practice in advertising. The Japanese brand Comme des Garçons subsequently commissioned a series of perfume campaigns entitled "You Can Find Beautiful Things Without Consciousness"^[3] employing the same satirical language. The series is presented on Jebb's imaginary TV channel, Lucid TV, and was premiered on Purple Television in 2014.^[4]

Technique

Within the exhibition "Les rencontres de la photographie", the followed critical commentary was made on her work (original text in French):

Much has already been written on the relationship between death and photography, on reality and fiction, on the blurring of genres – all fundamental themes in contemporary photography and also in the work of Katerina Jebb, an English artist based in Paris. What catches the attention is the weird aesthetic conjured by her technique. Her portraits – now printed from scans, and previously from photocopies – use a method that seems to denature life and maybe even nudge it over to the other side. And on the other side, the skin is even smoother and sometimes porcelain-white in colour; forms flatten and the aura of the gaze vanishes forever – as if, precisely, the breath of life was so diminished as to be lost. The stiffness of the characters gives us no clue as to the model's position: are they levitating, or are we in the presence of recumbent funerary statues? This stiffness, and the sumptuous dresses, also call to mind the saints carried through southern European streets during religious processions. The sacred has a part to play, too. Wavering, perhaps. Is this gaze – which isn’t one, really – eternity? The moment the photograph was taken is no longer at issue. These are frozen images – as is any photograph, of course, but here the function is multiplied. Mummification or embalmingo. In 1890, Dr Variot, a Paris hospital physician, proposed a new method of embalmingo, ‘galvanic anthropoplasty’, based on the use of silver nitrate, a substance well known to the period’s photographers. Katerina Jebb plays a little game of convergence and of process exchange: in a dizzying mise en abîme of the medium’s basic principles, she shows us an image whose aesthetic comes close to this idea. The garment – the most beautiful garment, of course – is deposited. As if it were the last worn; as if it were for eternity. What is captured is thus no longer an instant of life, but the appearance thereof in all its splendor.^[5] Vincent Juillerat, art historian, 2008

The Director of the Musée Galliera wrote the following text concerning her work:

I feel that Katerina Jebb desires to produce photographic works to chase away her doubts. Aided by the cold ray of light, it is the object, the clothing and sometimes even the human body that she examines in its shell, its skeleton. She turns photography into a ritual and sacred exercise in which the clothes and portraits are seen in a raw state. Her lost and rediscovered images are the absurd and drained mirrors of our worlds, of which they reveal tenderness and a sense of abandonment.^[6] Olivier Saillard Director of le Musée Galliera Paris, 2012

Exhibitions

Museum exhibitions

• Musée Réattu, Oser la photographie, 2015-2016^[7]
• Metropolitan Art Museum Tokyo, The Inventory of Balthus, 2014^[8]
• Palais de Tokyo Paris, The Festival of Autumn, "The Future Will Last A Very Long Time" 2012^[9]
• Momu Mussée d'Anvers, Madame Grés Sculptural Fashion, 2012^[10]
• Musée Réattu, Arles, Acte V, 2012^[11]
• Centre Pompidou Paris, You Can Find Beautiful Things Without Consciousness, Asvoff Festival, 2011^[12]
• Museum Of The Moving Image, New York, Opening Title Sequence, Birds Of Paradise, 2011
• Musee Bourdelle, Paris, Madame Gres, La Couture A L’oeuvre, Life Size Composite Scans, 2011,^[13]
• National Museum Kulturforum, Visions and Fashion, Berlin, 2011^[14]
• Musée Réattu, Arles, France,"Still and Living Objects and Women", 2008^[15]
• Musée Réattu, Arles, France, "Chambre d'Echo", 2009^[16]
• Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, "Avantgarderobe, Kunst und Mode im 20. Jahrhundert" 1999^[17]
• The Whitney Museum, New York, "The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style and Fashion” 1998^[18]
• Musée de la Mode, Marseille 1998^[18]
• Musée des Beaux Arts, Ontario 1998^[18]
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 1998^[18]
• The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg 1998^[18]

Gallery or group shows

• Paul Kasmin Gallery New York, The Written Trace, 2015^[19]
• The Festival of Arles, L'Arlesienne, 2014^[20]
• The Balthus Foundation, Le Tablier de Balthus, 2014 ^[21]
• Librarie Mazarine Paris 2013, Le Tablier de Balthus^[22]
• FIAC 2013 Hôtel de Miramion Paris, Spot – Balice Hertling in collaboration with Nilufar and Giò Marconi Gallery^[23]
• Art Paris Grand Palais, Analix Gallery Geneva, 2012^[24]
• Vara Fine Arts VPL, New York, Second Skin, 2012,^[25]
• La Chapelle Balthus La Rossiniere, Switzerland, Le Tablier De Balthus, Documentary Film & Life Size Composite Scans, 2011^[26]
• Trading Museum Comme Des Garcons, Paris, Simulacrum & Hyperbole, Video Installation, 2011
• British Film Institute Southbank, Birds Eye View Film Festival 2011, Simulacrum & Hyperbole, 2011
• Gloria Maria Gallery, Milan "Simulacrum & Hyperbole", 2010^[27]
• Brachfeld Gallery Paris, In the Realm of the Senses, 2010
• The Barbican Centre London, The Curve Gallery, video installation for Acne Studios 2009^[28]
• Contemporary Art Space of Dudelange, Luxembourg, "Faire Peau de l'Inconscient" 2009^[29]
• Art Gallery of the General Council, Aix en Provence, curator Olivier Saillard 2009^[30]
• Palais de l'Archeveque, Rencontres d'Arles, France "Untitled Icons 1–8" 2008
• Le Laboratoire, Paris "On Capturing a Cloud", video installation 2008
• Dover Street market, London "Comme des Garçons", mixed media installations 2008^[31]
• “Comme des Garçons", Japan, human photocopy installation 2007
• Givenchy, Paris, "Unidentified N°35", video projection and large scale human photocopy 200)
• Givenchy, Madison Avenue, New York, "Art meets fashion" 2006
• Anne Faggionato Gallery, London, "Psycho, Art and Anatomy", Autoportrait Oral and Real Doll, 2000^[32]
• The Hayward Gallery, Southbank, London, “Addressing the Century, 100 years of Art and Fashion” 1999
• Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth 1998
• RMIT Gallery, The Melbourne Festival, "Hype Fashion, Art and Advertising" 1999
• CCAC Gallery, San Francisco, "Fast Forward", video and installation, collaboration with "Comme des Garçons" 1998
• Kunstlerhaus Gallery, Vienna, "Fast Forward", video and installation, collaboration with "Comme des Garçons" 1998

Permanent collections

• Musée des Arts Décoratifs du Louvre, Paris, France
• Musée Réattu,^[33] Arles, France
• Musée Galliera, Paris

Publications

• Musée Galliera, Paris Haute Couture, Olivier Saillard et Anne Zazzo, (éditions Skira Flammarion, Sophie Laporte, 2012),^[34][35]
• Acne Paper, interview Professor Van der Kemp, 2012
• Purple magazine interview Olivier Zahm, 2013 ^[36]

Film festivals

• Barbican, BFI Southbank, Tate Modern, London, Fashion in Film Festival, "Birds of Paradise", 2010
• ICA Gallery, London, "Birds Eye View Festival", film projection (2009)

Television

• Canal+, France, "Essay on failure Malcolm McClaren" (2001)
• Channel 4, London, "Illuminations, zoom", films by fashion photographers (1999)^[37]

References

^{[38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52]}

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2. "Gloria Maria Gallery". Gloriamariagallery.com. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
3. "LUCID TV: YOU CAN FIND BEAUTIFUL THINGS WITHOUT CONSCIOUSNESS I / COMME DES GARCONS BY KATERINA JEBB". Purple.fr. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
4. "PURPLE PRESENTS THE TWELVE-PART FILM SERIES FROM KATERINA JEBB’S IMAGINARY TV CHANNEL LUCID TV". Purple.fr. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
5. "Les Rencontres d'Arles Rencontres d'Arles: expositions, stages photo /exhibitions, photo workshops". Rencontres-arles.com. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
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21. "FONDATION BALTHUS". Retrieved 3 September 2015.
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23. (PDF) https://web.archive.org/20140429080145/http://www.balicehertling.com/bio%20pdf/AlexanderMay.CV.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2014. Missing or empty |title= (help)
24. https://web.archive.org/20120313151125/http://analixforever.wordpress.com:80/program/. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
26. Archived 16 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
27. "Katerina Jebb Simulacrum and Hyperbole". Gloriamariagallery.com. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
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29. "Katerina Jebb". Retrieved 3 September 2015.
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32. "Psycho". Undo.net. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
33. https://web.archive.org/20090415071053/http://lbenyell.blog.lemonde.fr:80/2008/08/21/katerina-jebb. Archived from the original on 15 April 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)
35. "Nuit du Livre 2013 : le palmarès des prix". Retrieved 3 September 2015.
36. "Katerina Jebb - purple MAGAZINE". Purple. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
37. "Fashion: Off the peg - Conceptual fashion TV? Now there's a thought.". The Independent. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
38. "Label | Psycho | News | | Katerina Jebb | Premiere heure". Premiere-heure.fr. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
39. Dan Thawley (2011-12-02). "Simulacrum and Hyperbole". Vogue.it. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
40. Elena Bordignon (2010-09-22). "Tilda and the others". Vogue.it. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
41. "Katerina Jebb: Werbung, schöner als die Wirklichkeit | ZEIT ONLINE". Zeit.de. 2011-11-10. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
42. "Nowness". Nowness. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
43. "Alessio Nesi – Proprietexclusive ›". Alessionesi.it. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
44. "Up Close and Personal : ‘Second Skin’ at VPL". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
45. "COMME DES GARCONS - Womens - Selfridges | Shop Online". Style.selfridges.com. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
46. "Behind the Seams : The Film Project at Selfridges". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
47. "Journal d'une Parisienne : Katerina Jebb". Puretrend.com. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
48. "Comme Des Garçons Goes Beyond Fashion - Page". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
49. "Katerina Jebb". The Imagist. 2012-05-17. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
50. "The Last Magazine". The Last Magazine. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
51. "Les Rencontres d'Arles Rencontres d'Arles: expositions, stages photo /exhibitions, photo workshops". Rencontres-arles.com. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
52. "Katerina Jebb x Comme des Garçons Perfume | AnOther". Anothermag.com. 2011-11-30. Retrieved 2015-09-05.