Upcoming: BABY RENI – BEUTE
BEUTE. A typo that stuck. A folder named in haste, in which Baby Reni collects beauty campaign images. Missing the ‘’A’’, the ‘’Y’’ replaced for an ‘’E’’, landing somewhere more honest. In German, Beute means loot, prey, a haul. Something taken. Something won.
Operating as a fictional agency, Baby Reni doesn't quite know what it sells, but does know very well how to sell it. By “looting” the languages of fashion, advertisement and campaigning, the work mimics everything the industry produces, the gaze, the gloss, the desire, except for the product itself. Only the mechanism surrounding it is uncovered.
The exhibition BEUTE displays this system and reclaims the aesthetic categories it makes use of. Similarly to how Baby Reni reclaims “cuteness” she turns the mechanics of (Western) beauty standards into something to be examined, handled and played with. Underneath the gloss, the cute and the quirky sits something else: a humour that doesn't announce itself and a lightness that carries weight.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Baby Reni (b.1997, The Netherlands) is the moniker of artist and designer Irene Ha. By deconstructing fashion conventions from an artistic standpoint, she draws connections between the contemporary culture she grew up in and the traditional customs of her Vietnamese heritage. Through her work she celebrates Diasporic Southeast Asian pop culture through kaleidoscopic assemblages, installations and performances. While recalibrating everyday diasporic objects, trinkets and interiors, she parodies fashion aesthetics and brand identities. Working in the tradition of artists who critically engage with the strategies of luxury brands and their cultural institutions, she operates at the intersection of commerce, identity, and cultural infrastructure. She obtained a BA fashion design from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
OPENING during HOOGTIJ
29 May, 19:00—23:00 h
OPENING HOURS
Saturdays and Sundays
30 May–21 June, 11:00—17:00 h
ON APPOINTMENT
for visits outside opening hours mail to joost@daslebenamhaverkamp.com
LOCATION
Stille Veerkade 19, The Hague
free entrance and partly wheelchair accessible
Photography: Nikola Lamburov
MUA: Kathinka Gernant
Models: Yade Noe, Ren Takagi, Thu-Anh Nguyen, Milou Xiao Wan Smits
BEUTE is supported by Creative Industries Fund NL, Gemeente Den Haag and Stroom Den Haag.