A Corner With Francesca Tamse

07.12. - 10.12.2017 

A Corner With was a series of exhibitions taking place in our studio in Dalston in London. Each artists was invited a month before the launch evening, to use the studio space as their studio and create new work. Sketches of the floor plan was asked by each artists to see how ideas and the space transforms.

Pure Devotion or a Eulogy for JTT’s Smile (2017) is an installation made up of forty odd pillows that spill into a candy coloured room. Guests can lay comfortably on tumble mats, a cushion to daydream on. Teen Magazines with sensational titles as BOP, TeenBeat, Tiger Beat, and Superstars contained full coloured pull out centrefold posters, celebrity gossip, and advice columns. These magazines targeted to American pre-teens and adolescents alike during in the 80s and 90s until its final drop in the 2010’s. There was a resurge of popularity in the 90s only to be pointing towards one reason: JTT. An icon of this era, JTT Jonathan Taylor Thomas, or simply ‘JTT,’ the golden haired child-actor represented purity and charm. JTT starred as one of the sons of Tim ‘The Toolman’ Taylor (Tim Allen) in the hit family series, Home Improvement. He thenappeared packaged in every teeny- bopper magazine at the grocery store. Whatever these magazines communicated, with its adolescent depiction of budding sexuality. Such as a printed object turned commodified objects of love and affection. It encapsulates a heightened crave of love unspoiled, untainted. Rather than photographing a actor or model, Tamse photographs a subject closer to her and prints his image onto the fabric pillow. During this process, ironically came feelings of repulsion and unsettling in its construction. It started as a joke in the beginning, now it’s made me question if the replications of the image is intended for the personal. He is the inspiration behind this project.

sketches by francesca tamse:

Francesca Tamse (b. SF Bay Area, California) works and lives in London. She graduated with a BA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York in 2013. As a fond NY experience, she had focused on producing zines and photobooks, organising zine fairs, and everything in between working with 8-Ball Zines (now, 8-Ball community). Upon graduation, she received the RCA residency award and has left the US ever since. Her collaged images and playful modes of display can be found in self-published books and special one-offs that are printed on various surfaces. She graduated in MA Photography at the Royal College of Art in 2016. Francesca was shortlisted for Unseen Book Dummy Award and has been featured in Vogue Italia, 1Granary, and Dear Dave. Her work has also appeared in exhibitions including Scratch the Surface, curated by Trine Stephensen at Aldama Fabre Gallery, ES and On Landscape, Matèria Gallery, Rome, IT. She is represented by MARYMARY projects in NYC.

For more information about A Corner With and the exhibition program please contact us:

51-63 Ridley Road, E8 2NP, London

hello@trinestephensen.com
www.acornerwith.com