The Standard

Photographer Shaniqwa Jarvis has a great eye, is an awesome storyteller, and is an overall fun person to hang with. Shaniqwa has done impressive work for Calvin Klein and Stussy, and recently held acclaimed exhibitions in London and Tokyo called This Charming Man. We loved This Charming Man so much that we couldn’t resist asking Shaniqwa to do an install in The Box at The Standard, Hollywood.

Ladies and gentlemen, from what we’ve seen so far, our instincts were correct. The Box is going to be fantastic, Shaniqwa’s subjects for The Standard include, among others, musician Amanda Blank, musician/artist Aska Matsumiya, set designer Peter Klein, Craft store owner Peter Arbalez, and JMV of Le Branche. If you can’t make it to Hollywood, stay tuned to our Tumblr where we’ll be releasing some of the photographs over the next few weeks.

Join Shaniqwa on Thursday, October 26th, 7:30p-9:30p at The Standard, Hollywood as we celebrate her new installation, This Charming Guest, in The Box and lobby of the hotel. As an added bonus, DJ’s Heather Thompson and R.A.D. have promised that this artist reception is guaranteed to turn into a dance party!

In preparation for the install, we sat Shaniqwa down and got her talking about the installation, voyeurism, candles, love letters, and travel:

Tell us about how This Charming Man was came about and how This Charming Man evolved into the This Charming Guest project. Between 2007 and 2010 I relocated from New York City to Los Angeles and then to London. Whilst dealing with the good and bad effects of a break up, I began to look at the people around me in a different way, especially men. I thought to document the young men who sparked a certain curiosity in me in London, LA, SF, and New York. I wanted to expose the tensions between personal and public personas and explore the symbolic and visual dialogue about taste, style and of course modern masculinity. When the lovely ladies at The Standard, Hollywood asked me to install as part of the artist series, I chose to further explore the idea of public and private personas within a intimate space. I chose the subjects in the same manner as I did with This Charming Man, carefully and from the gut. Asking each of my subjects to curate the hotel room with personal items played into my cultural eavesdropping and voyeuristic tendencies.

Talk about your inspiration for your piece in The Box. I wanted to participate visually and didn’t want to take self portraits so I felt to curate the box in the same way I would have done a room in the Standard would give the viewer a good look into my head.

What’s the one thing you never leave home without, your personal secret travel item? I always travel with a Le Labo candle (petit grain 21) and my large hot pink Liberty cosmetic bag. It holds all of my much obsessed over beauty products.

How do you feel about your art sharing space with a live model? I think its an interesting concept as its turns it into a performance piece as well. I will be installing a lot of reading material; pages from old journals, love letters, magazines and books in the box which I think will amuse and terrify the models.

What’s the best adventure you’ve ever had in your career as a photographer? The best adventure I’ve had as a photographer would be traveling to shoot Lee Scratch Perry. It was a plane, trains, and automobile kind of trip to a small town in Switzerland.

What’s up next for you? I am working on a group show with 3 of my best friends, Todd Jordan, Rafael Rios, and Frances Tulk Hart, a few product collaborations, and a documentary on a group of my mothers friends. Hopefully a trip to Cuba and Africa well.

Shaniqwa Jarvis’ install in The Box at The Standard, Hollywood will be on display October 27 through November 27.