The pain of desire

On first looking at Bevan’s photography, there’s a sense of gravitas and maturity that belies the artist’s youthfulness and fashion-orientated background.

Her hauntingly brilliant photographic works send a shiver to the core and reflect – as suggested in the title of her show at the Cob Gallery – the brutal, cutting, dark side of desire.

A Clean Well Lighted Place, copyright Wendy Bevan
A Clean Well Lighted Place, copyright Wendy Bevan

The theatrical, dramatic pieces in the show are painterly in their style, examining ‘the inner pain suffered through the pursuit of prescribed and aspirational notions of identity and success’. 

The haunting women in the works are captured in moods vacillating from what appears to be serenity and calm; to near-madness and claustrophobia.

Bevan’s beautiful yet disquieting works are captured on Polaroid, and then hand printed. She displays the pictures in antique frames, which she sources herself, and which become an extension of the piece itself.

A Supreme Silence that Awakens the Light of Tenderness, copyright Wendy Bevan
A Supreme Silence that Awakens the Light of Tenderness, copyright Wendy Bevan

Alongside Bevan’s photography, the show will showcase the artists discipline-crossing talents. Her band Temper Temper will proved the soundtrack to a performance piece on selected nights of the show, which will see a series of vocal performances where Bevan’s character will physically respond to the photographs and the emotions they portray.

Not content with photography and performance, Bevan’s films, created alongside artists Sayaka Maruyama and Tomihiro Kono, will also be on show, underscoring the links between the various media she employs.

The Pain of Desire, copyright Wendy Bevan
The Pain of Desire, copyright Wendy Bevan

The show runs in collaboration with concept store Guts for Garters’ Surrealist Women event, situated on the bottom floor of the gallery. Surrealist Women marks the 75th year celebrations of the Surrealist movement, exploring the female role in a movement frequently characterised by a patriarchal stance..

The Guts for Garters show features work from Grayson Perry, Eileen Agar, Petra Storrs, Alexander McQueen and Mylene Elliot; as well as that from RCA Graduates Grace du Prez, Johnny Briggs and Andrew Farrow.

You Drove me to the Madness of My Tears, copyright Wendy Bevan
You Drove me to the Madness of My Tears, copyright Wendy Bevan

Wendy Bevan: The Pain of Desire runs from 17 June – 30 July at Cob Gallery, www.cobgallery.com as part of Surreal Women, a collaboration with concept store Guts for Garters.

 

 

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