The Kiss (2003)

Rut Blees Luxemburg has a well-established practice of urban photography, with which she investigates the metropolitan landscape and the ways in which the city affects the human condition, as well as its relationship with literature and music. With a sense of play and fluidity, her works suggest new ways of navigating the city, and explore the possibilities of rediscovery, beauty and poetry, which exist beneath the harsh surface of the built-up environment.

In 2003, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea worked with Blees Luxemburg on an exhibition entitled Ffolly, which included a group of newly commissioned works shot in Swansea. The Kiss is part of this group of works, as is Swansea sur mer, which the artist gifted to the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery at the time of this acquisition. Both works have a particularly powerful resonance for the people of Swansea because of their depiction of familiar and evocative elements of Swansea’s identity. The Kiss is an abstract image in which gum stuck to the pavement in Swansea undergoes a poetic, alchemical transformation into gold, whilst Swansea sur mer depicts the beach through a cluster of trees, an instantly recognisable landmark for local residents.

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