Kayode Ojo uses all sorts of materials to render his vision of the glossy contemporary culture as it comes supernaturally inflated in magazines and posts. His sharp critical eye plays with the forms of jewels, dresses, bodies, props, design objects and twists them in new reconfigurations. Sometimes multiplied, sometimes in ghostly solitude, others in non functional self defeat. Is he monumentalising the narcissistic culture through his shiny reflective materials and excessive use of mirrors, crystals and stainless steel, or is he making it disappear by reflecting the environment like a chameleon? This immersion in the jewelled world of wealth is becoming more and more ghostly as we distance ourselves from the decades of excess far into the new era of puritanism. These relics are remnants of a collective imaginary in which excess was the way to go. Now they are like huge jewels or faux bijoux in a time capsule. Usually, time capsules are also made of stainless steel. What are we to make about the future of all these items that stubbornly refuse to rust, to age? Kayode Ojo has provided the answer by his photographic body of work on show in ECLIPSE. In his photos he steals fleeting moments of the inhabitants of this hyperreal life: bodies, embraces, intimacy, skin. All of his photos synaesthetically titillate smell and touch, so much in contrast with the surgical cold steel quality of his installations. So fleshy and vain like memento mori of the inescapable deterioration. His photos are remnants of a time when laughter and sweat could be exchanged for fame. A pre-pandemic carefreeness muffled in the same time capsule.

Closed Audition: Boohoo Plus Verity Slinky Plunge Split Maxi Dress, 2018
Inkjet print mounted on museum board, 70.80 x 101.28 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Martos Gallery, New York

Scorched Bedroom, Paris (Cartier), 2018
Inkjet print mounted on museum board, 66.99 x 101.28 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Martos Gallery, New York

Closed Audition: Balenciaga Bootcut, 2018
Inkjet print mounted on museum board, 66.99 x 101.28 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Martos Gallery, New York

Silver (Belgium), 2018
Inkjet print mounted on museum board, 66.99 x 101.28 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Martos Gallery, New York