Sarina Greene
Captured In Person At The Brooklyn Artists’s Exhibition
Sebastiaan Bremer
“Inez and Vinoodh” 2023
Pigmented Inkjet print.
Someone once asked me what the most important thing to anyone was in this world. I answered with maybe delicacy & they looked at me like I was the foolish footwoman who forgot about love. Ironic being that I am full of it. I discovered this photo that combined painting, and image capture to create a print of what feels like a distant memory of intimacy. It’s what humans can’t live without. A longing for family & love we see here in its purest form.
The Brooklyn Museum celebrated their 200th birthday by showcasing 200 Brooklyn-based artists who created their pieces in Brooklyn, highlighting the voices of our beloved borough. The Brooklyn Artists’ Exhibition was organized by Jeffrey Gibson, Vik Muniz, Mickalene Thomas, Fred Tomaselli, coordinated by Sharon Matt Atkins, & many others.
The museum’s showcase had an impressive collection of art ranging from an interactive world map that places LGBTQIA+ related hate crimes to rug-woven collages that capture the underrated form of the selfie; however, the placement of all the pieces felt suffocating. It felt as if the art was carelessly thrown across the room with no thought behind it. The yellow walls also took away from the impact the art has on its own. Most museums & galleries maintain the white-walled pure space in order to avoid the vain distractions of surrounding appearance, yet this one decided to challenge that in the wrong way. I’m all for experimentation with design & presence, but not when done for shock factor, which very well may be the case. I walked in circles around the museum, unable to choose a piece of art to start with, & then I found Sebastiaan Bremer’s “Inez and Vinoodh” 2023.
Around the corner of the entrance to the exhibit stood a photo of two individuals in embrace, one looking down while the other kisses their cheek. Warm colors of orange & brush strokes of wavelengths radiate off their bodies. Orange is historically a color that symbolizes soothing optimism, with a dab of luxury to it. Playing on the idea that this youthful romance is a luxury not a right. The hint of orange is mainly coming from the figure who is kissing the cheek of the other— being the more masculine physique there’s a fallback on traditional standards of the warmth coming from the opposite figure as you would expect. Especially from the way the studio lights of the room bounce onto the frame, I felt this was the only photo that mattered at the moment.
“Inez and Vinoodh” is a photographic landscape of pigmented inkjet that invokes this surreal emotion of physical touch. An emotion one might not describe as an emotion until having seen this layered technique of photography in person. This work is paying courtesy of Inez & Vinoodh—a dutch American fashion photography duo whose work has been featured in several magazines such as Vogue, Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, Dust Magazine, Elle Magazine, etc. They are known for being real life partners, & have gathered seniority in the art of combining photography with fine art in the same way Bremer has captured. However, the charm of “Inez and Vinoodh” isn’t the impressive landscape, but instead the romantic aura of these two individuals. Yes; they are highly polished celebrity figures, but that doesn’t take away from the mood of hopeless romance in this piece.
Out of all the pieces in the Brooklyn Artists’ Show, this one struck a chord within me. I felt the details of the physical art were trivial to focus on, but the way I lost myself in a fantasy of desire, was left standing in a daze, & unable to truly fathom what to make of this piece until at home typing this right now, seem more like the true intention of this piece. The longing to be the ones trapped in a photograph I haven’t had taken of me yet.
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