A Unique and Idiosyncractic View of Car Girls as Seen Through the Lens of Renowned Dutch Artist Jacqueline Hassink Photography

NEW YORK, NY.- Dutch artist Jacqueline Hassink has received critical acclaim for her books and exhibitions that deal conceptually with issues of power and social relations. Car Girls (Aperture, April 2009) is a body of work that Hassink has created over five years, photographing major car shows in seven different cities on three continents, including New York, Paris, Geneva, Tokyo, Detroit, and Shanghai. As she describes it, she has used these sites to reflect on “differing cultural values with regard to their ideal images of beauty and women. The series captures the moments during the women’s performances when they become more like dolls or tools than individuals.”

In an issue of Aperture magazine, art critic Francine Prose praised the work for its ability to “make us rethink the association between auto and eros as if it had never occurred to us, and to see it newly in all its sheer outrageous strangeness.” Car Girls takes a subversively fun yet conceptually astute approach to issues of gender, power, and commodification. This luxuriously produced publication is designed by the award-winning Irma Boom, and is limited to an edition of 1,500 copies.

On Tuesday, April 7 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Dashwood Books, 33 Bond Street, New York, N.Y. 10012, will host a book signing and party with the artist. The following Tuesday, April 14 starting at 6:30 p.m., Aperture Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, New York, N.Y. 10001, will host a lecture and booking with the artist. Both events are open to the public on a first come, first serve basis. The book will launch coinciding with the New York International Auto Show that takes place April 10-19, 2009 at Jacob Javits Convention Center located at 11th Avenue between 34th and 39th Streets. Additional book related events will be announced shortly.

JACQUELINE HASSINK (born in Enschede, the Netherlands, 1966) has published extensively, including The Table of Power (1996), Mindscapes (2003), The Power Book (2007), and Domains of Influence (2008). Her work has been shown extensively at various international venues, and her photographs are in the collections of the Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, among other institutions. Hassink is a visiting professor in a number of programs, including the postgraduate photography program at the University of Art and Design, Helsinki, and at the Visual and Environmental Studies program at Harvard. She is represented by Cohen Amador Gallery, New York. See for Jacqueline Hassink the Table of Power & Luister naar Jacqueline Hassink ... & lees een interview ...

TIM DANT (essay) is a reader in sociology at the University of Lancaster. He is the author of Materiality and Culture (2005), as well as numerous books and articles on the subject. From 2002 until 2005 he was involved in major research on car culture.