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…
My process has always been one with doubt. Doubt and I have come to be good friends. We argue; doubt challenges me; I like to challenge doubt. Sometimes I listen; sometimes doubt listens to me. Things get clearer when we talk. ‘And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must…
Email sent to Jim Moore 31st May 2017. Dear Jim Today I read your chapter ‘Photography changes how we perceive ourselves’ (in the publication ‘Photography Changes Everything’). I cried. Thank you… It was beautiful. Renee (Pages 133-135, ‘Photography changes how we perceive ourselves’ by Jim Moore; from the publication ‘Photography changes everything’, Marvin Heiferman, 2012, Aperture…
‘Recently, I asked the students in my seminar what things they owned that they considered meaningful. One young woman sheepishly admitted that she owned a shirt once worn by Jerry Seinfeld, which she had brought on eBay. All the students agreed that Seinfeld once having worn the shirt gave it value and meaning. Exactly what…
6.44am, 16th March 2017. Shannon Haunui-Thompson, Te Manu Korihi Editor for Radio New Zealand posted the following news report on the RNZ website. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/326689/whanganui-river-to-gain-legal-personhood The full report is quoted below. ‘Whanganui River to gain legal personhood In a world first, a New Zealand river will be recognised as a person. The Whanganui River Claims Settlement Bill was…
Dialogue Collective meets Handshake in Munich for the exhibition ‘It Will All Come Out In The Wash’; part of Schmuck week 2017. Dialogue Collective meets Handshake Exercise: each member is to ‘Pimp’ one peg which will be included in a lucky dip as part of the exhibition. My contribution.
I have been thinking about objects; those most precious to us and their significance in our lives. What is it that makes them so comforting; so significant? Here are a few thoughts I have had around this… Objects allow us to feel connected. Connected to experience, to memory, to the intangible. Connected to the…
Handshake met Dialogue Collective some years back. Now Hanshake3 collaborate with Dialogue Collective in the exhibition, Dialogue Collective meets Handshake, ‘It Will All Come Out In The Wash’, 10-12 March 2017, Lot62, Munich; an exhibition part of Schmuck week. Working with the theme of being neighbours, sharing a common thread (in this case quite literally…
Every object has a story to tell, one often formed through human interaction. All objects have a life; some moving from hand to hand; others traveling like nomads. Some objects are loved; others lost, homeless, discarded. Some objects stay, remaining with their owner throughout the owner’s life. In such a case, for each, there is…
The Rarotonga night sky and its surroundings are pure black like thick black oil paint. The sound of the ocean repeats. As the wind blows a sea of candles flicker, some blow out, others dance in the darkness. This blackness is in stark contrast to the pure white we used to paint the graves earlier…
This blog is a glimpse of input and output; research and outcome; a glimpse into some of my process and what feeds work. My process is about filling my head. Reading; thinking about things; again, and again; and then differently; having conversations, observing what is around me and reflecting on experiences. This blog is a…
‘Silence remains, inescapably, a form of speech’ Susan Sontag
Spencer Finch, Trying To Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning, 2014, National September 11 Memorial Museum. Recalling his experience in making a small prototype of the work at ground zero; “A construction worker came by — a kind of wise guy — and looked at it and said, ‘You forgot the red ones’,…
Renee Bevan, History Undisclosed, 2016 Exhibited at Galerie PLATINA, Stockholm, Sweden as part of the exhibition Handshake3. I have always wanted to attend a police auction. So many objects with such sinister pasts. Each objects past undisclosed; its history unknown. It was on the 24th March 2016 that I attended my first police auction at…
Everything has Mauri. Everything a life force. Everything – be it animate or inanimate. Neke recently done a post which included this subject herself. I have borrowed her definition below. Mauri: ‘Mauri is an energy which binds and animates all things in the physical world.’ (Taken from: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/te-ao-marama-the-natural-world/page-5)
Exhibited at Objectspace as part of the Handshake3 collaboration exhibition; Harrell Fletcher and Renee Bevan, ‘What the moon looked like the evening she was born’, 2016 A collection of objects and their stories contributed from friends, family and strangers working in the Objectspace neighbourhood and further afield.
A sneak peek of things to come… Harrell Fletcher and Renee Bevan, ‘What the moon looked like the evening she was born’, 2016, (Hector’s watch on loan from Jeff McDonald) Harrell Fletcher and Renee Bevan, ‘What the moon looked like the evening she was born’, 2016, (Britney on loan from Anthony Bayer) Objectspace Director Kim Paton writes ‘A project that…
HANDSHAKE 3 