Ocula: 5 Must-See Gallery Exhibitions in Paris this Autumn

Fawn Rogers: Come Ruin or Rapture
Elaine YJ Zheng, Ocula Magazine, 11 Oct 2023

Expect: a dive into childhood memories and their influence on an eco-feminist's practice across video, painting, and sculpture.

 

American artist Fawn Rogers' debut exhibition in Europe narrates a rapturous coming-of-age story. At once embodying the playful rebellion of youth and its pitfalls, Rogers brings nature and femininity to the fore to contemplate social realities.

 

Beauty and tragedy meet in Car Meat (Akhal Teke) (2023), a metal rack holding crumpled metal sheets neatly suspended like designer gowns. These are in fact lacquered accident-impacted car hoods, with each of their colours—rose gold, silver, deep bronze, and ochre gold—modelled after a rare horse breed, the Akhal-Teke, which is known for its distinct metallic sheen.Similarly, Rogers' paintings evoke the adolescent desire for emancipation and for finding a language for oneself.

Across various canvases, a car is set ablaze under a night sky; a carefree topless woman sunbathes in a field while in the distance, a tree grows through the rear window of an abandoned car; and a swimming horse is seen from underwater, paired with the assertion: Everything that has time in it and becoming (2023).

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