Jack Davison - Song Flowers

Publisher: Loose Joints & Marni
Year: 2020
Format: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Edition, 1,000 copies
Condition: Like New
Pages: 88
Size: 235 × 260 mm

Song Flowers by Jack Davison, is a new body of work made in collaboration with Marni. Jack Davison’s work is renowned for its dexterity, soulfulness and human spirit, and in his encounter with the Miao cultural groups of Southwest China, Davison explores how speed, rhythm and place interact with ancient traditions in the 21st Century.

The Miao are one of the oldest ethnic groups in China and are globally renowned for their intricately handmade clothing and patterns, as well as boisterous and imaginative local festivals and myths. As a key inspiration for Italian fashion house Marni, Davison was invited by Creative Director Francesco Risso to spend time and indulge in the pace of life and creativity in these rural communities. Photographing everything from weavers and indigo dying to children, animals, cities and nature, the openness and lush tones of Davison’s work suggests an interconnectivity between landscape and development, or between tradition and modernity. However, rather than focusing directly on the much-documented material culture and aesthetics of the Miao, Davison’s images preoccupy themselves with the backdrops, workshops, faces and hands that shape Miao culture. Song Flowers eschews the intricate and grandiose to look at the intimate and everyday - the hammers laid down after a day’s silverwork, the highway running over the waterlilies, or the stray threads accumulating in the weaver’s workshop.