Juno Calypso (b. 1989, London) is best known for staging elaborate, solitary self-portraits. Her seductive, sinister photographs are a critical take on modern rituals of beauty and seduction. Immersed in her trademark palette of pastel pinks and bruising blues, she explores themes of femininity, solitude, despair and desire.
Working alone, Calypso is the protagonist in her own retro-futuristic satire. Empty Pleasures revisits her archive, bringing together highlights from previous projects alongside new works that incorporate collage and found imagery for the first time in her practice. Working from new photographs alongside found images from the 1970s and '80s, Calypso cuts, mirrors, and recombines fragments to create images that feel both nostalgic and uncanny.
This evolution builds on a long-standing studio practice; she comments, "Photo manipulation has always been a part of my work. I would blend two images, copying and pasting elements of each photograph together to create an illusion of perfection and harmony.’’ In the new works, Calypso pushes this further; her figures multiply into kaleidoscopic forms and ghostly apparitions as the pursuit of perfection begins to unravel and the distinction between physical reality and reimagining becomes increasingly blurred.
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All exhibition works printed and framed by Beyond Print.
