EXHIBITIONS \  Jacqueline Hassink \  View, Kyoto

The Wapping Project Bankside now represents Jacqueline Hassink and we are delighted to announce the first UK exhibition of her acclaimed series View, Kyoto (2004 – 2011) this fall. Dutch visual artist Hassink is well-known for her interest in economic power and the spaces in which it is exercised, and staged. She was recently shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Pictet 2012 and Henri Cartier Bresson Award in 2013.

View, Kyoto – Hassink’s most evocative and visually seductive project to date, is a detailed photographic study of some of the most magnificent examples of traditional Japanese gardens surrounding the Buddhist temples of Kyoto. Hassink first visited Kyoto in 2001 and started working on her project in summer 2004. She initially visited 34 gardens, chose 19 and, after difficult negotiations, was allowed to photograph 12. She returned the following years, and, between 2004 and 2011, produced work in around 40 temples. The Wapping Project Bankside is presenting a selection of 10 large scale prints from the series, including works produced in the Hosen-in, Shoden-ji and Ryoan-ji temples of Kyoto, along with a video.

Often shot from inside and looking out towards the gardens, the minimal geometry of the interiors (accentuated by a strict grid of tatami mats, wood beams and rice paper wall partitioning) is given equal importance, within the frame of Hassink’s photographs, as the surrounding nature – a reproduction of the universe on a microscopic scale. View Kyoto (2011, two-channel video), juxtaposes travelling shots of the temples with footage of four head monks discussing nature, space and Zen Buddhism. Structured around the four seasons, the film highlights the monk’s seasonal living patterns and their relationship with their ever changing domestic environment.

In keeping with Hassink’s ongoing interest in space, the works in View, Kyoto emphasizes a seminal principle in traditional Japanese architecture: the blurring of the boundary between interior / exterior and private / public. Viewed from within a shrine, temple or villa, the garden is an ‘abstract painting of nature’. Every possible viewing point is a premeditated angle from which to admire the living work of art. InView, Kyoto, landscape is an object for contemplation and a repository for meaning, neither pure nature nor culture, but displaying both in the form of human art.

Hassink’s new book The Table of Power 2 has been shortlisted for the ‘Paris Photo/ Aperture Book Award’ as one the ten best photo books of the year. View, Kyoto will be published by Hatje Cantz in fall 2014. Hassink is currently working on a solo exhibition at MAMbo (the Museum of Modern Art, Bologna), curated by François Hébel (October 2013).

About Jacqueline Hassink
Jacqueline Hassink (born 15 July 1966) is a Dutch visual artist. She lives and works in New York City. Her first art project, The Table of Power(1993–95), was followed by projects such as: Female Power Stations: Queen Bees (1996–2000), Car Girls (2002–08), Haute Couture Fitting Rooms, Paris (2003–12), and The Table of Power 2 (2009-11). Hassink’s work has been widely collected and exhibited, and she has lectured at Harvard University in conceptual photography and at the International Center for Photography in New York. Her work has appeared in The Financial Times, Le Monde, The New York Times, El Pais, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reuters, De Standaard, NZZ, Newsweek, Fortune, Wired and more.