The Kate Show

From 15 September to 14 December 2006 Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam presents The Kate Show, an exhibition focusing on style icon, super-model and muse Kate Moss. Although the image of Kate Moss has been a constant figure and celebrity in the media over the past fifteen years, Foam has done far more then simply creating homage to a popular model. The exhibition concentrates on the relationship between public and private life, the power and influence of the media and the common desire to shape public figures to reflect our own perspectives.

The Kate Show features work by a wide range of photographers, fine, conceptual and pop artists whom were especially invited to participate in the show. For example, the show includes work by photographers Terry Richardson and Mario Sorrenti who have regularly portrayed Kate for fashion and other reportages. Visual artists have also drawn inspiration, for example Andro Wekua, Adam McEwen and Richard Prince show work specially made for this exhibition.

The Kate Show is an investigation into an image that reflects an age in which the fashion world feeds the art world, and vice versa, in which photo models have become super-women and in which minor private misfortunes become inflated out of proportion into world news. The artists in this show explore the rise of a phenomenon, the effect of the media and the creation of an icon based on images. Kate Moss is the personification of an empty canvas on which everyone projects his or her own desires, ideas or frustrations.

Although Kate’s tumultuous life regularly gets her into the papers, she hardly ever gives interviews. Unlike many of her fellow models, she has no career ambitions in other areas, like film or music. She confines herself to what she’s good at: posing. As a result a mysterious aura surrounds the world’s most photographed model.

The story of Kate Moss is already legend. She was only 14 when she was discovered by Sarah Doukas, founder of the British modeling agency Storm. When her first session with photographer Corinne Day for youth magazine The Face appeared, it made an immediate impact on the fashion world. In 1993 she became the face of Calvin Klein. Following the celebrated glamour look of top models of the 1980s, Kate Moss became the first anti-model, with her famous waif look. It became known, perhaps cruelly, as heroin chic. In the late 1990s Kate Moss became one of the world’s leading models.

The Kate Show is compiled by Olivier Zahm (journalist, curator and director of Purple Institute, Paris) and Rita Ackermann (artist and curator).

For more information about The Kate Show please visit http://www.foam.nl