Dru Donovan Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
Enclosed are selections from two bodies of photographic work; Survey and Lifting Water.
Survey examines the body and how humans perform life’s daily rituals. The work explores the way in which we take care of one another and ourselves by examining our need for physical contact, how we show and express affection, and the ways in which we use our bodies as self-representation. Subjects include: bodybuilders and dancers attempting to control and sculpt their form, a man wanting to transform himself through gastric bypass surgery, adolescents losing control of their body through consumption and twin sisters altering their individualized identities. Through the joining of light, form and context disparate individuals become unified. While some of the situations depicted are witnessed and photographed in real time, many of the images are created with false backdrops, models and various props. The construction and staging of scenes allow me to locate and investigate the intersection between one reality that exists and another imagined.
Lifting Water is a book project, which investigates loss and mourning. Scenes were constructed in which models reenacted my experience of caring for a friend as he was dying of cancer. Using a motel room as a set, I hired a main character to act the role of my friend while the caretaker cast rotated with each shoot. The experiences I selected for re-enactment by the caretakers were those still vivid in my memory and include helping out of bed, offering water and bathing. Needing to view and record the scenes repeatedly, I used various camera formats to offer multiple perspectives of these singular moments. The photographs investigate the physical, psychological and emotional weight of loss, the universal rituals of taking care of someone as they die, and the shifting perspectives that occur in the process of mourning.
Enclosed are selections from two bodies of photographic work; Survey and Lifting Water.
Survey examines the body and how humans perform life’s daily rituals. The work explores the way in which we take care of one another and ourselves by examining our need for physical contact, how we show and express affection, and the ways in which we use our bodies as self-representation. Subjects include: bodybuilders and dancers attempting to control and sculpt their form, a man wanting to transform himself through gastric bypass surgery, adolescents losing control of their body through consumption and twin sisters altering their individualized identities. Through the joining of light, form and context disparate individuals become unified. While some of the situations depicted are witnessed and photographed in real time, many of the images are created with false backdrops, models and various props. The construction and staging of scenes allow me to locate and investigate the intersection between one reality that exists and another imagined.
Lifting Water is a book project, which investigates loss and mourning. Scenes were constructed in which models reenacted my experience of caring for a friend as he was dying of cancer. Using a motel room as a set, I hired a main character to act the role of my friend while the caretaker cast rotated with each shoot. The experiences I selected for re-enactment by the caretakers were those still vivid in my memory and include helping out of bed, offering water and bathing. Needing to view and record the scenes repeatedly, I used various camera formats to offer multiple perspectives of these singular moments. The photographs investigate the physical, psychological and emotional weight of loss, the universal rituals of taking care of someone as they die, and the shifting perspectives that occur in the process of mourning.
CV
DRU DONOVAN
238 Adelphi Street #3 Brooklyn, NY 11205 415.515.0039 dru@drudonovan.com
BORN
1981 St. Paul, Minnesota. Lives and works in New York
EDUCATION
2009
MFA in Photography, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
2004
BFA in Photography, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, California
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2011
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Workspace, New York
2009
Richard Benson Award Excellence in Photography, Yale University
SELECTED EXHIBITIONs
2011
Only Photographs, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon
California Continued, Smith Andersen North, San Anselmo
Is This Real Life?, Open Space, Balitmore, Maryland
Girls, Girls, Girls. Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, New York
2010
California Biennial. Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California
Identity in an Uncertain World. IFP, St. Paul, Minnesota
Blind Spot Lab Issue 41. Blind Spot, New York, New York
reGeneration2 : Tomorrow’s Photographers Today. Musée de l_Elysée, Lausanne Switzerland; Les Rencontres de’Arles, Arles, France; Aperture, New York, New York, The Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa; Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China
2009
New Work. Harry Drake Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota
We Belong Together. Green Hall, New Haven Connecticut; Capricious Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; Gallery 339,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Eighth Veil, Los
Angeles, California
Domesticated.Transformer Gallery, Washing, DC
2008
‘31 Under 31’ Young Women in Art Photography. Humble Arts Foundation, Brooklyn, New York
2006
All That They Are. Holocene, Portland, Oregon
2005
Group Show. Frank Stone Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
MONOGRAPHS, PUBLICATIONS &EXHIBITION CATALOGUES
2011
Donovan, Dru. Lifting Water, Oakland, California: TBW Books.
2010
Bancroft, Sarah. California Biennial. Newport Beach, California: Orange County Museum of Art
Ewing, William. reGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today. Lausanne, Switzerland: Musée de l_Elysée, and 2nd edition New York, New York: Aperture
Blind Spot: Issue 41. New York, New York: Blind Spot.
2009
Yale MFA Photography. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press
COLLECTIONS
Deutsche Banks
Musée de l_Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
DRU DONOVAN
238 Adelphi Street #3 Brooklyn, NY 11205 415.515.0039 dru@drudonovan.com
BORN
1981 St. Paul, Minnesota. Lives and works in New York
EDUCATION
2009
MFA in Photography, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
2004
BFA in Photography, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, California
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2011
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Workspace, New York
2009
Richard Benson Award Excellence in Photography, Yale University
SELECTED EXHIBITIONs
2011
Only Photographs, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon
California Continued, Smith Andersen North, San Anselmo
Is This Real Life?, Open Space, Balitmore, Maryland
Girls, Girls, Girls. Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, New York
2010
California Biennial. Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California
Identity in an Uncertain World. IFP, St. Paul, Minnesota
Blind Spot Lab Issue 41. Blind Spot, New York, New York
reGeneration2 : Tomorrow’s Photographers Today. Musée de l_Elysée, Lausanne Switzerland; Les Rencontres de’Arles, Arles, France; Aperture, New York, New York, The Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa; Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China
2009
New Work. Harry Drake Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota
We Belong Together. Green Hall, New Haven Connecticut; Capricious Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; Gallery 339,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Eighth Veil, Los
Angeles, California
Domesticated.Transformer Gallery, Washing, DC
2008
‘31 Under 31’ Young Women in Art Photography. Humble Arts Foundation, Brooklyn, New York
2006
All That They Are. Holocene, Portland, Oregon
2005
Group Show. Frank Stone Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
MONOGRAPHS, PUBLICATIONS &EXHIBITION CATALOGUES
2011
Donovan, Dru. Lifting Water, Oakland, California: TBW Books.
2010
Bancroft, Sarah. California Biennial. Newport Beach, California: Orange County Museum of Art
Ewing, William. reGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today. Lausanne, Switzerland: Musée de l_Elysée, and 2nd edition New York, New York: Aperture
Blind Spot: Issue 41. New York, New York: Blind Spot.
2009
Yale MFA Photography. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press
COLLECTIONS
Deutsche Banks
Musée de l_Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2007, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2007, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2007, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2008, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2008, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2009, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2009, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2009, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2009, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled, from the body of work Survey, 2009, Pigment Print, 25x30 inches
Untitled 1#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 7.5x5 inches
Untitled 2#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 5x7.5 inches
Untitled 6#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 5x7.5 inches
Untitled 5#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 7.5x5 inches
Untitled 7#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 7.5x5 inches
Untitled 10#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 5x7.5 inches
Untitled 9#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 5x7.5 inches
Untitled 18#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 5x7.5 inches
Untitled 19#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 5x7.5 inches
Untitled 20#, from Lifting Water, 2010, Pigment Print, 7.5x5 inches