Fashion experts know very well Alice Hawkins’ name and will remember her work being featured in various magazines. Yet even people who are not insiders in the fashion industry or who are not good at remembering names, will recognise Hawkins’ style.
A graduate from the graphic design course at Camberwell College of Art, Hawkins first started her career as photographer at i-D. Her work has been featured in various magazines, from Pop to Tank, Harper’s Bazaar (US) and The Independent and she also shot advertising campaigns for the likes of Topshop and Agent Provocateur.
Taking portraits of page three girls, Russian high society women and soldiers, Miss East Anglia competitors, Essex girls carrying “It” bags and Americans and their animals, Hawkins has merged the boundaries between fashion photography and art.
The various subjects of her portraits look very different one from the other and also come from different social extractions. Some of them might look more extravagant than others; some portraits are rather theatrical, others dramatically dubious when it comes to good taste, yet all of them portray real people, characterised by a special humanity. 
Her
subjects might be Tokyo girls dressed like maids, Hollywood ladies,
beautiful Jamaican girls dressed in brightly coloured outfits or members of rock
bands, yet what counts are not age, appearance, status and place but the investigation of issues such as glamour, beauty, preconceptions, aspirations, identity, appearance and social roles.
There is a kitsch touch in her “Versace Hunk” series for i-D, while a special intensity characterises the “Alice in India” or “Somewhere in Texas” photo shoots for Pop, in which the look in the eyes of her subjects literally pierces the page. You could definitely write essays on the expressions and postures of her sitters, their glamorous attire and sometimes kitsch backgrounds surrounding them. In some cases Hawkins posed as her own model, making herself the subject of her portraits, almost imitating her sitters, exchanging her identity with theirs.
An interesting exhibition at London’s Spring Projects that opens at the end of the month, "The Good, the Bad, the Belle" will allow visitors to explore Hawkins's work together with Barnaby Barford’s.
Taking innocent looking mass-manufactured or antique ceramic figurines, Barford creates disturbing narratives and sinister stories, exploring themes such as violence, lost childhood and family values by breaking and reassembling them.
Graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2002, Barford exhibited his pieces in the UK, US and Japan and worked with famous companies such as the historical porcelain manufacturer Nymphenburg.
At Spring, Barford will also present a film he recently shot. Entitled "Damaged Goods", the film features two of his unique figurines who meet in a china shop and fall in love.
Though Barford’s work contrasts with Hawkins', in both their artistic universes there is a deep exploration of specific social issues and this is what will make this exhibition worth visiting.
"Alice Hawkins and Barnaby Barford: The Good, the Bad, the Belle", Spring Projects, 10 Spring Place, London, UK, 27th February-5th April 2009.
Rispondi