Location: Scuderie Ducali, Piazza San Romano 4
Opening times: Monday – Thursday 3pm – 7:30pm / Friday – Sunday 10am – 7: 30pm
ERIK KESSELS – IN ALMOST EVERY PICTURE #16 – SEXY SOFA
Exhibition design by Roland Buschmann.
We like to christen our stuff; our kids, our boats, a new home. We often celebrate when we use something for the first time, to mark the occasion and its appearance in our lives. There are traditional ways to do this, and then the not so common , personal rites of passage we create for ourselves and our things.
In 1965 Noud and Ruby decided to pimp up their living room. They refurbished the fireplace opting for a conical, mid-century design that resembles a witches’ hat. The second new addition was a sofa; a tufted corner piece in a classy shade of beige velveteen. Not a right-angled design but a soft sensual curve snaking around the corner of the room. Not to mention, it had tassels.
Unsurprisingly, Noud and Ruby were smitten with their revamped living room and wanted to give it a christening all of their own. Their new home improvements set the scene for what became a sincere and erotic collaboration between Noud and Ruby that spanned almost 10 years, documenting fashion and fantasy and ultimately prompting us to ask ourselves: who are we behind closed doors and what sides of our identities do we choose to conceal, even if they give us pleasure and satisfaction?
These images – received with permission from Noud and Ruby’s daughters – were never intended to be revealed beyond the walls of their living room and yet now we have them in front of us. And that’s one of the wonderful things about photography; it gives us control over our legacy, of how we want to be portrayed and what imprint of ourselves we want to leave behind. Through Noud’s camera Ruby becomes a star taking centre-stage. Yet in almost every picture, the performances of the sofa and the fireplace elevate them to co-star status in the mise-en-scène of their dedication and love for each other.
exhibition realized with the financial support from the Mondriaan Fund
