NEW YORK, NY.- Kasher|Potamkin presents Tim Hailand: New Gold Dream, the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York in over a decade. On view will be Hailand’s latest series of photographs of performers, artists and gymnasts printed directly on toile de Jouy fabric. Each piece is unique and will be mounted over a large-scale installation of the same toile de Jouy fabric found in the works, thereby creating an environment that references the French countryside room which inspired the series. The majority of images were shot in either France or Hollywood.
New Gold Dream refers to the title of a 1982 Simple Minds album that inspires and reverberates with the same stirring, romantic mood of Hailand’s work. Creating unexpected juxtapositions, Hailand engages in a dynamic that ultimately abstracts his portraits into something entirely new. Rarely using professional models, Hailand says, “I like to photograph people who have become the way they look because of what they do. Form following function. The process of what they do is in their being."
Hailand disrupts the naturalism of his portraiture by printing his photographs onto an existing patterned fabric, which he considers a ready-made. His subjects become inscribed with the pattern of the fabric and in some, he incorporates subjects who are already heavily tattooed themselves. Contemporary photographic imagery intrudes on images of 18th century pastoral life: Butterflies, classical ruins, a couple strolling, or stepping off a boat. By integrating another artisan’s design with his own images, Hailand embarks on a collaboration that seeks not perfection but rather a beauty in the possibilities of chance.
Hailand is interested in performance on stage, as well as how one constructs and performs their own identity. He explores representations of both “real” and “fake” identities: A performance artist, a wax figurine, a classical statue, or tattoo parlor. In this work, Hailand seeks the points where identities overlap or sometimes fade into memory. He includes for instance a series of self-portraits created in Room 16 of L'Hotel in Paris, the room in which Oscar Wilde died in 1900.
Hailand’s passion for printing on patterned fabric began while doing an artists residency at Claude Monet’s former home and gardens in Giverny, France. His bedroom, covered in a classic provincial red on white toile de Jouy wallpaper, ignited his love of the pattern. He allowed himself to engage solely in the process, and this body of work was born. To Hailand, the highly stylized environments found on the fabric mimic the idealized selves that his subjects seek to portray in his photographs.
Tim Hailand was born in Buffalo, New York in 1965. He has exhibited internationally, including solo shows at Claudia Gian Ferrari, Milano, Italy; Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO; CRG Gallery, New York, NY; Untitled Projects, Berlin, Germany; and Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL. In 2012 he was awarded The Claude Monet Giverny / Versailles residency in Giverny, and in 2013 The Robert Rauschenberg Studio program in Captiva Island. In 2014 he became an Artist in Residence at The Center for Art and Performance UCLA. He has collaborated on a series of photo books with, amongst others, Robert Wilson, Marina Abramovic, and Rufus Wainwright. Hailand currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
