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Above: Democracy, 2020, Spraypaint on art history book, 10 x 10 inches.
What, if anything, have we learned from history? Are we, as the famous phrase attributed to philosopher George Santayana goes, doomed to repeat it? Paris-based artist Kinu Kamura asks a similar question. Especially in terms of consumerism and the speculative strategies central to Western capitalist culture – and by extension the art world, she asks, “How do you carry on a ‘meaningful’ and ‘valuable’ practice today?” Educated between Tokyo, Paris, and London, the French-Japanese artist melds her own experiences into the backdrop of Western art history and the globalized, attention economy-fueled landscape of contemporary art. Kamura’s Cover series aims to splice the two together, creating paintings reminiscent of 80s Post-Punk album covers that playfully erase the past while simultaneously challenging how it has defined the present.
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