Deborah-Joyce Holman Close-Up en

Deborah-Joyce Holman focuses on politics of representation, especially in relation to Black and queer people. Holman counters mechanisms of stereotyping, spectacle, and commodification with the withholding of visibility and legibility, and through forms of quiet refusal.

Close-Up follows on from the solo exhibition Living Room (2023) at Kunsthalle Bern. For the exhibition at Kunstverein Freiburg, Holman has produced a new video work restaging one of the videos shown at Kunsthalle Bern. In part, the work centres on the filmic exploration of a person’s interior life as a potential site of resistance. With narrative and performance limited to a minimum, the video portrays a Black actress in a flat doing next to nothing. However, in the reenactment presented at the Kunstverein, the contemplative act of “doing nothing” is choreographed down to the smallest detail. The scenes precisely reproduce each movement in the earlier video. In this version, shot on 16mm film, Holman works exclusively with close-ups of the actress’s face and surrounding interior. These detailed shots, that might suggest intimacy and interiority, are transformed into a monumental projection screen, a barrier that throws back into question the proposed transparency of the filmic image and its generative loopholes.

Close-Up is Holman’s first solo exhibition in Germany.

In partnership with Swiss Institute, New York:

The exhibition is supported by:

Image: Deborah-Joyce Holman, Close-Up, 2024, Filmstill, Courtesy the artist