The exhibition at the Fox Talbot Museum reflects 4 bodies of work in which John Paul Evans and his husband Peter explore notions of the belonging and otherness in relation to the marriage/couple/wedding portrait and the photographic family album.
These performative responses to ideas of marriage and domesticity evoke a sense of the uncanny, Freud’s idea of the ‘homely and un-homely’, fluctuating between the poignant, the comic, and a potentially disturbing presence in the domestic space.
“Within each of these four series of photographs by John Paul Evans unfolds a unique tale.
They imagine John Paul and his husband Peter in situations ranging from perfect domestic bliss to reinterpretation of words meant to wound and reminding us of more innocent meanings, creating a world full of magic.
As an artist, John Paul has imagined his and Peter’s life together as a self-contained fairy tale where they live happily ever after. They take the tropes of traditional society and stand them on their heads, insisting that all have the right to happiness without judgement or slander by others. Through this work they begin a dialogue about self-respect, pride acceptance and equality. These images may strike some as strange – in the history of photography they are portraying things seldom seen – but that’s OK. It means that all-important dialogue has begun.
Contemporary attitudes around gender, sexual orientation and the nature of human relationships are still a mixed bag of opinions on what is considered. ‘proper’ or ‘natural’.
As a species, until we can embrace life in all its permutations, accepting all as part of life’s rich tapestry, and leave prejudice and condemnation in the dustbin of history, well, we still have some work to do.”
Roger Watson – Curator of the Fox Talbot Museum
John Paul Evans is a Welsh born photographic artist and academic who now lives in Devon. He is a 2016 Hasselblad Masters Award winner.
John Paul Evans : What is lost…what has been
Until July 14th2019
The Fox Talbot Museum
Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, UK
