Wednesday 8 June 2011

Look Out: Octopus Obsessions

Herb Ritts' iconic image of a man shrouded in an octopus could well be a reference for a new generation of artists using the octopus as a prop in their images. We first noted the trend when Fantom magazine ran Tumiko Utsu's whimsical Octopus Portait (left) on their Winter 2010 cover. Yumiko mixes performance, sculpture and photography to create surreal and often cheeky images derived from organic materials that speak of life and death. Linked by octopus, Zoia Skoropadenko's recent photographic exhibition Torso (right), which has just finished in London, sees the artist recreating scultped classical torsos using octopuses. The results are eye popping and you can see more of Zoia's work on her website. Torso VIII © Zoia Skoropadenko.