Tommy Cash ja Rick Owens. The Pure and the Damned 03/05/2019 – 15/09/2019

Location: 5th floor, Gallery of Contemporary Art

The exhibition at the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn displays both the individual works of Tommy Cash and Rick Owens, as well as their jointly executed artworks for the show. Although different in practice and background, Cash’s and Owens’s interests overlap considerably: Cash’s visuals feature a great deal of aestheticised uncanniness, whereas Owens’s practice carries a kindred approach to the balance between functional design and the pure manifestation of form. This exhibition aims to emphasise their artistic positions, which, although originating from different realms of culture, boldly shape the larger picture of the visual arts today.

The Tallinn-born Tommy Cash (1991) sources his images from various themes: his curiosity about pop culture blends well with a distorted body image and supports his non-binary approach. The visual language that runs through the body of Cash’s works is rich and colourful, and the exhibition tends to follow this aesthetic, applying it to both the newly produced art works and the spatial set up, also manifested through sound and lighting.

The American fashion designer Rick Owens’s (1961) multifaceted works unfold through a coherent selection of garments, objects and furniture. The display covers a large period of his practice, allowing runway video documentation to support the garments. Contrary to the colourful exposition of Tommy Cash’s works, a shadow world emerges. Here the presentation is executed in a grey scale: a massive monochrome display with only a few colours characterises the soul of this zone.

The constellation of the exhibited materials – sculptures, garments on mannequins, objects, videos and sound – progresses into a realm of its own. The exhibition, consisting of multiple zones with different atmospheres, operates as a total spatial installation, where opposite poles of the same mind are questioned. This realm of Tommy Cash and Rick Owens works like a concentrate: it’s an amplified version of usually subtle hints and whispers.

Curator: Kati Ilves
Exhibition design: Mihkel Ilus, Tõnu Narro and Anna Tumaini
Exhibition production: Tõnu Narro, Elisa Johanna Känd and Anna-Philippa Wolf
Graphic design: Tuuli Aule

Participating artists and other collaborations:
Faig Ahmed, 3DWorld, Scott Laufer, Maison Margiela, James Kerr / Scorpion Dagger and Pintsel

We thank:
Anni Mets, Jarmo Nuutre, Bruno Lillemets, Kadri Vahar, Helen Saluveer, Kadi-Ell Tähiste, Maria-Kristiina Soomre