Angel O'Brien
The Distance of Forgetting
Diana Nicholette Jeon
Nights as Inexorable as the Sea
Artist Talks via Zoom
Diana Nicholette Jeon: Wednesday, October 7, 5:00 PM
Angel O'Brien: Wednesday, October 14, 5:00 PM
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image © Angel O'Brien
Angel O'Brien: The Distance of Forgetting
In her series, The Distance of Forgetting, photographer Angel O’Brien uses self-portraiture to look inward while exploring her place in the world around her. The images in the series are the result of intuitive processes, and O’Brien’s unconventional poses and surreal manipulation of her body visualize the complex, layered nature of identity while also disrupting conventional expectations of femininity. Similarly, the artist pushes photography into experimental territory, often using multiple alternative analog and digital photographic processes and incorporating graphite, colored pencil, and ink into her handmade prints.
As O’Brien explains, “I'm giving the viewer not simply a picture, but instead a moment in time that may explore melancholy, censorship, sight/insight/blindness, daydreaming or simply existing in the world as a woman, mother, lover, or friend. Though I use myself in my work, and certainly my experiences influence what I create, I don't really see it necessarily as self-portraiture. These works are not meant to solely tell my story, but rather are inspired by the experiences of being a woman in the world today.”
Angel O’Brien is a writer and artist based in Portland and San Francisco. Her photography has been exhibited in the United States and in Europe, most recently at Lightbox Photographic Gallery in Astoria and the Albatross Gallery in Gold Hill, Oregon. The Distance of Forgetting was selected for the Critical Mass Top 200 in 2019.
image © Diana Nicholette Jeon
Diana Nicholette Jeon: Nights as Inexorable as the Sea
“I’ve always been amazed when friends recount intricate details and entire storylines of their dreams while mine remain in shards—minute fragments of what was. Was it really a dream, or was it a previously forgotten memory seeping through to my conscious mind?”
Diana Nicholette Jeon’s Nights as Inexorable as the Sea is a series of black-and-white diptychs that reproduce the strange and unpredictable nature of dreams and memory. The artist’s uncanny yet poetic pairings of images reveal the inconsistencies of the subconscious, while their presentation in small, open-faced tins simulates the desire to hold onto these ephemeral memories, as if storing treasured snapshots and other keepsakes for posterity.
Diana Nicholette Jeon is an award-winning contemporary artist who lives and works in Honolulu, Hawaii. She holds an MFA from University of Maryland Baltimore County and her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. Jeon's art has received four Hawaii SFCA Purchase Awards, the International Photo Award, 11th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Pollux Award, and the Mobile Photo Award, among others, and has been featured in Gente di Fotografia, SHOTS Magazine, Pf Magazine, the Art Photo Index, and LensCulture.