Renee Bevan
Subject/object
2017
A series of large format photographic prints with images and stories.
Install dimensions 2.4 metres x 2.7 metres.
Photograph: installation view; The Dowse, Wellington, 2017.
Renee Bevan
Subject/object (detail image)
2017
Renee Bevan
Subject/object (detail image)
2017
Renee Bevan believes that objects bear witness to our lives through our engagement with them. Here, she uses photographic prints to explore the potential of objects through stories; distilling each item to the emotional weight it possess for its respective owner. The objects become central characters in plots about everyday circumstances and rituals such as birth, marriage and mourning.
Not all of these objects are worn as jewellery might be worn, but all bear a relationship to the body. One narrator uses second-hand clothes to craft their identity. Another narrator invests in objects, hoping these will bring happiness and good fortune. Some of the objects seem to have a life of their own: a crystal grants powers of invisibility, a woman’s lost diamond re-appears in the garden on the anniversary of her husband’s death.
Through these accounts, Bevan reveals how we build our lives around objects; how their meanings grow and change with us and how they can contain memories, feelings, and even otherworldly powers.
– Curator, Sian van Dyk, The Dowse, Wellington
Slideshow with detailed image of each text/image from;
Renee Bevan
Subject/object
2017
Special thanks to all those who have so generously contributed to this project.
HANDSHAKE 3 