“This series is about feelings, sad ones, happy ones and everything in between. It is about joy and fear, it is melancholic and warm, it is about gain and loss, it is about the beginning and the end of life and the whole time in between.” - Christopher Thomas

IN-DEPENDANCE by IBASHO is presenting the exhibition Bittersweet. On display will be a selection of colour photographs by Munich-based photographer Christopher Thomas, who is best known for his city portraits.

Bittersweet addresses two opposing, contradictory terms. When looking at the pictures, however, it becomes clear that the pair of opposites seems very suitable for expressing the unspeakable.

Thomas has taken the pictures for Bittersweet over the last ten years in various countries on several continents. Thus, he shows the viewer symbols that remind him of childhood and a sense of happiness: merry-go-rounds, ice cream cones, bubble gum machines, circus tents, fairs, cotton candy, wonder bags, roller skates, ferris wheels, tricycles, and more. These symbols are embedded in rural and urban landscapes. In most of the images, people are non-existent. We immediately think of our lost childhood, of spontaneity and immediacy. However, behind all the sometimes superficially seductive images lurks the fear of the loss of bliss and the undeniable power of transience.
Thomas' pictorial worlds thematise decay and finitude. Thomas is preoccupied with places where something was and is no longer so, where something has changed.

Thomas' Bittersweet recordings span the potential joy of life and the melancholy sense of loss.

The artist will be present during the Antwerp Art Weekend.

On Friday 15 May at 2 pm Christopher Thomas will talk about his work.

On Saturday 16 May at 2 pm Christopher Thomas will talk about his work.

IN-DEPENDANCE is a new art gallery established by the owners of IBASHO.

IBASHO's program is mainly focussed on collaborations with and exhibitions by talented photographers from Japan and beyond. But over the years, they've encountered numerous photographers whose artistic work aligns with our aesthetics, even if these works aren't directly linked to Japan. The urge grew more and more to create a space for these artists and showcase their work.

This has led them to open their new gallery IN-DEPENDANCE, in addition to IBASHO, dedicated to these artists. IBASHO and IN-DEPENDANCE will coexist with each other, and over the next years, the relationship between these spaces will form and cement itself in the Antwerp art scene.