Desiree Dolron, Domenican Republic, 2001 cGiclée fine-art print on Hahnemühle baryta satin 2017 Copyright Desiree Dolron Courtesy of the Artist and GRIMM, Amsterdam | New York
TITLE_NAME :
Desiree Dolron : Prelude: Forever Someone Else
14/10/2017 - 18/11/2017
GRIMM
Frans Halsstraat 26
1072 BR Amsterdam
https://grimmgallery.com/
GRIMM is pleased to present a new solo exhibition by Desiree Dolron (NL, 1963) focused on photographs documenting her extensive travels. The exhibition is a prelude to a larger body of work that will be the subject of a new monograph, scheduled for publication in 2020.
The title ‘Forever Someone Else’ refers to a book of selected poems by Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), a writer, philosopher, mystic and astrologer. Pessoa employed as many as 75 alter egos, referred to as heteronyms, which he deployed at will to disseminate various philosophical and theoretical views.
This exhibition reveals a body of work from Dolron never previously exhibited. Included are various self-portraits in such distinct environments that each becomes an alter ego of the artist, functioning much like Pessoa’s heteronyms. The viewer witnesses the artist adapting, changing and evolving with each situation.
Starting with works from 1991, the exhibition presents photographs taken in Pakistan and India, depicting Romani, the world’s oldest roaming nomad tribe. The earliest self-portrait in the exhibition features Dolron when she returned to the site in 1997, standing with an AK-47 amidst Taliban child soldiers.
In stark contrast is a group of images taken the same year (1997) at the Wigstock drag festival in New York City. Drag queens with big hair, self-made eccentric hats, and triumphant clothing are captured parading down the street. Dolron participates in celebration, posing with one of them in another self-portrait.
Three individual images are shown on another wall; a speeding car, symbolizing the American dream, taken in Cuba (2002), a portrait of a beautiful girl from the Dominican Republic gazing melancholically into the camera (2001) [image], and a desert landscape shot at night in Miami (1993); the blacks intense, the light subdued. Together, these three images promote ideas of power and status.
Pessoa treasured the ‘dream’ as the highest attainable end, the rest only a means to get there. We see the same ideas reflected in Dolron’s work. ‘Prelude: Forever Someone Else’ embodies a sense of becoming that binds these works together. Everything is in a state of flux.
“I know not what tomorrow will bring”
– Pessoa’s last writing, he died the next day, November 30th, 1935.
14/10/2017 - 18/11/2017
GRIMM
Frans Halsstraat 26
1072 BR Amsterdam
https://grimmgallery.com/
GRIMM is pleased to present a new solo exhibition by Desiree Dolron (NL, 1963) focused on photographs documenting her extensive travels. The exhibition is a prelude to a larger body of work that will be the subject of a new monograph, scheduled for publication in 2020.
The title ‘Forever Someone Else’ refers to a book of selected poems by Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), a writer, philosopher, mystic and astrologer. Pessoa employed as many as 75 alter egos, referred to as heteronyms, which he deployed at will to disseminate various philosophical and theoretical views.
This exhibition reveals a body of work from Dolron never previously exhibited. Included are various self-portraits in such distinct environments that each becomes an alter ego of the artist, functioning much like Pessoa’s heteronyms. The viewer witnesses the artist adapting, changing and evolving with each situation.
Starting with works from 1991, the exhibition presents photographs taken in Pakistan and India, depicting Romani, the world’s oldest roaming nomad tribe. The earliest self-portrait in the exhibition features Dolron when she returned to the site in 1997, standing with an AK-47 amidst Taliban child soldiers.
In stark contrast is a group of images taken the same year (1997) at the Wigstock drag festival in New York City. Drag queens with big hair, self-made eccentric hats, and triumphant clothing are captured parading down the street. Dolron participates in celebration, posing with one of them in another self-portrait.
Three individual images are shown on another wall; a speeding car, symbolizing the American dream, taken in Cuba (2002), a portrait of a beautiful girl from the Dominican Republic gazing melancholically into the camera (2001) [image], and a desert landscape shot at night in Miami (1993); the blacks intense, the light subdued. Together, these three images promote ideas of power and status.
Pessoa treasured the ‘dream’ as the highest attainable end, the rest only a means to get there. We see the same ideas reflected in Dolron’s work. ‘Prelude: Forever Someone Else’ embodies a sense of becoming that binds these works together. Everything is in a state of flux.
“I know not what tomorrow will bring”
– Pessoa’s last writing, he died the next day, November 30th, 1935.