Roe Ethridge

Happy Birthday Louise Parker

Curated by Alessandro Rabottini
February 21 – April 5, 2024

10 Corso Como

20154 Milano, Italy

Conceived especially for 10 Corso Como’s first exhibition in its new Gallery space, Happy Birthday Louise Parker brings together a selection of iconic photographs from the past 15 years alongside previously unreleased works, fusing themes and subjects that, at a first glance, may appear unrelated to each other: elaborate still lives, accurately staged fashion shots, melancholic landscapes, and intimate portraits. Images are skillfully juxtaposed to forge visual connections, unravel contrasts, and weave narratives, and despite the diversity of their atmospheres, what connects them all is a formal rigor that is as haunting as it is arresting, if not confrontational at times.

The exhibition draws its title from the alluring presence of Louise Parker, a model with whom Roe Ethridge collaborated with on the occasion of several fashion editorials starting from 2010. Throughout the years, the two became friends and Ethridge had the opportunity to portray Louise Parker both inside and outside the framework of the fashion industry. We see the recurring, hypnotic image of Louise transitioning from highly stylized fashion spreads to more spontaneous, intimate portraits and back, manifesting the intertwining of life and representation, the everyday and the staged. In this collection of portraits, the gaze of the artist meets the self-aware gaze of the model, in a way that thematizes and transcends the dynamic interplay between the photographer, the camera, and the subject, between the intentionality of the artistic vision and the intentionality of the pose.

Through the arrangement of images in space, Ethridge develops a non-linear form of storytelling, in which diaristic images coexist with commercial photographs, fashion shots with individual memories. This non-hierarchical system of equivalence between things is shot through with a feeling that permeates the entire exhibition: that of time passing. Ethridge looks at fashion as a cultural phenomenon that, by its very nature, is connected to the concepts of transience and ephemerality; a language that mirrors and amplifies the temporal nature of human existence. Indeed, fashion is an ever-evolving discipline where trends emerge, flourish, and fade, each passing season serving as a poignant reminder of the cyclical nature of life. Through his lens, Ethridge captures the delicate balance between creation and decay, between the perfect moment and its inevitable disintegration, between pleasure and consumption. In this sense, the best wishes expressed in the title of the exhibition (“happy birthday”) also function as an indicator of the passage of time, evoking both a sense of euphoric anticipation and the feeling of inner reflection that often accompanies us on our birthday.