David LaChapelle
Jesus is My Homeboy
June 2023 - October 2023
The Last Supper, the sermon or the feeding of the disciples with bread and fish - staged in a visually stunning way on the streets of a big city, in a Chinese fish shop or in shabby rooms. In this 2003 photo series, US photographer David LaChapelle interprets the Bible in his own way.
In this cycle Jesus is My Homeboy, created in 2003 for the British magazine i-D, LaChapelle illuminates biblical scenes in sugary, luminous colours as oversized tableaux vivants.
Jesus as a homeboy, as a mate of his disciples, who gather around him together with a blonde female figure, Mary Magdalene, in a dingy living room, on the streets at night or in a shabby kitchen.
RIZE
2005 film documentary by David LaChapelle
Filmed in South Central Los Angeles. At the centre: Clown Dance and Krump. Clowning originated in the 90s of the 20th century from clown acts for (children's) birthdays. It quickly developed into a dance style based on breakdance movements. Tommy the Clown is regarded as the inventor of clowning, the source of inspiration for krumping. This more intense and also much more aggressive way of dancing has been incorporated into numerous international music acts and videos, e.g. by Missy Elliott, The Black Eyed Peas and Madonna. The American magazine Variety described the film as an all-round successful experience that pays tribute to social complexity and manages to combine this with a visual bang. At the film presentation of RIZE, the music magazine Rolling Stone spoke of a phenomenal film, a visual miracle. We are showing RIZE in our exhibition.
The Father and art
On the occasion of the vernissage, Prof Dr Friedhelm Mennekes SJ gave an introduction to the work of David LaChapelle.
The art expert founded and managed the Kunst-Station St. Peter in Cologne, a centre for contemporary art and music, for many years. He has been a visiting professor for contemporary art at numerous universities and has been „Consigliere per l'Arte Contemporanea“ at the Pontifical Council for Culture since 2021. Here are some quotes from his speech:
David LaChapelle is an artist I didn't know until Rafael Jablonka asked me to open this exhibition. After studying him and this work, I have to say: for me, he is one of the great, one of the greatest artists of our time.
He was socialised as a Catholic, like so many artists, for example Andy Warhol. Later, many, including LaChapelle, turned away from religion. What has remained, however, is the longing to produce images that is inherent to Catholicism. This is exactly what David LaChapelle does; it seems as if he wanted to create the Bible itself with this cycle.
You can bring a bunch of morals with the Christian thought or simply a voice at the right moment that says „you can't do that“. That stops the policemen in the picture ‚Intervention‘ from doing what they are doing.
LaChapelle does not make Catholic propaganda, but shows people who set themselves free. They do it because they can. That's why, for me, these pictures are among the most magnificent of this genre.
David LaChapelle
Photographic art with its own unmistakable style
Born in 1963, LaChapelle, who recently opened a studio in Miami in addition to his New York studio, studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts and soon met an important patron in New York. Andy Warhol paved the way for his legendary magazine Interview, followed by other leading magazines such as Paris Vogue, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, which enabled LaChapelle to develop his own unmistakable style. LaChapelle's work can be seen regularly in the world's major museums and galleries: National Portrait Gallery or V&A London, Musée d'Orsay, MUDEC Milan, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Groninger Museum, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Staley Wise Gallery, Pearl Lam Galleries Singapore and many others.
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