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Young artist wins REcreative competition and a trip to Yayoi Kusama’s studio in Japan


Pure Land


Pure Land Detail two


Pure Land Detail one

Young artist wins REcreative competition and a trip to Yayoi Kusama’s studio in Japan.
Kusama-inspired works by the winner and four shortlisted artists to go on public display at the Louis Vuitton Maison on New Bond Street.

REcreative and Louis Vuitton have announce that Yi Dai, a 23-year-old student of Fine Art at Central St Martins, has won the REcreative Kusama-themed competition and has been awarded a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Japan to visit artist Yayoi Kusama’s studio.

Yi Dai’s winning work, entitled Pure Land, is a meticulously compiled paper collage, which was chosen out of nearly 100 submitted projects by the competition’s panel of judges: artist Yayoi Kusama, Tate Modern Director Chris Dercon, South London Gallery Director Margot Heller and Tate Modern curator Frances Morris.

Kusama herself praised Yi Dai’s elegant work, saying, ‘This work looks like my work. I like it so much’. Tate Modern curator, Frances Morris also applauded ‘the poetry of these beautiful collages’.

Yi Dai’s work, along with pieces by the four other shortlisted young artists aged 16-25, which were inspired by the competition’s theme of ‘obsession’, will go on display at an exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Masion on New Bond Street from 8th June – 8th July 2012.

The REcreative competition winner Yi Dai wins a trip to visit Yayoi Kusama’s studio in Japan for her and a friend. Yi Dai was also interviewed for the Tate blog by Guardian arts writer Skye Sherwin.

For the competition, young people aged 16-25 were invited to upload a project onto the REcreative website, following a brief set by Kusama’s studio. Nearly 100 projects, all responding to the propsed theme of ‘obsession’, were submitted before the deadline on 15 April 2012. The four shortlisted artists whose work will be included in the exhibiton at the Louis Vuitton Maison include:

Obsessive Rolling (Working title), Rhiannon Lewis, aged 23
Rhiannon, a student living in Leeds, continues to roll up the large quantity of printed promotional material that arrive on her doorstep, mostly take away menus, into paper pellets. ‘I liked the seeming pointlessness of the exercise in this project and the fact that it is a work in progress’ said Frances Morris.

It Never Changes to Stop, Gabriel Calderwood, aged 18
For this film, Gabriel transformed his bedroom into a set and used the infinite pattern of eyes to create ‘a haunting prison’. Kusama commented: ‘I like the motif (of the) eye. It’s really good.’
Watch the film above

Numeric Obsession, Georgia Henn, aged 20
This beautifully edited film takes the viewer on an endless journey up a seemlingly never-ending flight of stairs, while the overlaid voice of the artist counts them in a non-chronological order.
Frances Morris commented: ‘This was a very simple idea made very compelling through clever editing…. It actually held my attention for far longer than many narrative videos.’
Watch the film

The Flies, Laura Navin, aged 23
For this clay work, the artist handcrafted hundreds of tiny clay flies, arranging them in carefully ordered rows and columns. Judge Frances Morris commented: ‘Another mad work employing extreme skill to no obvious end. This reminded me of the way children spend hours lining things up for no reason, or maybe the desire for order, control, certainty. It’s great when ‘why’ has no obvious answer’

REcreativeUK.com is a website devised by young people in collaboration with the Hayward Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts, the South London Gallery, Tate Britain and the Whitechapel Gallery as part of the Louis Vuitton Young Arts Project. Launched in June 2011, the REcreative website has become a highly active online community which inspires greater involvement and interest in contemporary art. Young people can upload and discuss art works, watch exclusive video content, win prizes and get behind the scenes access to a range of arts professionals, artists including Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry, art critics such as Ben Luke and Oliver Basciano, and the publisher of Dazed & Confused, Jefferson Hack.

The Louis Vuitton Young Arts Project is an arts and education programme that was launched in 2010 by five of London’s most prestigious public galleries. The project is led by the South London Gallery in partnership with the Hayward Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts, Tate and the Whitechapel Gallery.

Louis Vuitton and Art
For over 155 years, Louis Vuitton has entertained a close relationship with art. Symbolising French elegance and art de vivre, the Maison Louis Vuitton has always collaborated with the best engineers, decorators and artists. Marc Jacobs, artistic director since 1997, has given renewed impetus to Louis Vuitton’s ties with art by initiating partnerships with internationally renowned artists such as Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince, further strengthening the Maison’s commitment to developing the dialogue between luxury and contemporary art.

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