Hrvoje Slovenc
Encyclopedia
Hrvoje Slovenc http://hrvojeslovenc.com(born 1976, Zagreb
, Croatia
) is a Croatian fine art photographer based in New York City
. He holds MS in Biochemistry
from University of Zagreb
and MFA in Photography from Yale University
School of Art.http://hrvojeslovenc.com/text/biography.html
His photographs have been exhibited in dozens of shows nationally and internationally including Museum of Contemporary Photography
in Chicago
http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/art-design/20876/relative-closenesshttp://www.mocp.org/exhibitions/2007/06/summer_show_fam.php, Museum of New Art in Detroit, and The Bronx Museum of the Arts
http://hrvojeslovenc.com/text/biography.html. Also, he is a recipient of London Photography Award, International Photography Award, Golden Light Award, Photography Now Award, BRIO Awardhttp://www.bronxarts.org/brio_recipients.asp, as well as Mortimer Hays-Brandeishttp://www.brandeis.edu/mhb/recipient/2007-08.htmlhttp://www1.cuny.edu/forum/?p=1510 and Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowships.
Slovenc was part of 2011 AIM residency program at The Bronx Museum of Art. Slovenc has been a visiting artist at institutions including Drew University
, The City College, and LaGuardia Community College
http://hrvojeslovenc.com/text/biography.html.
, Slovenc traveled to Kabwe, Zambia
to photograph the effects of lead pollution on the local population. With photographs and text, Slovenc has transformed a typical documentary subject matter in such a way that it has become not only about the observed or the observer as individual entities, not about “us” or “them” as two very distinct cultures, but primarily about the relationship between the two. In his most recent body of work Home Theater, Slovenc photographs domestic spaces in which sadomasochistic sex acts are taking place.
acts are taking place. These images grew out of his personal experience in which he solicited people on numerous sex websites where he presented myself as an S&M practitioner. Even though the images are of the actual, lived-in domestic spaces, they appear to be artificial, hyperreal, grand, and with a slightly distorted perspective, as if constructed as sets for a movie or a play. To achieve that effect, Slovenc had to return to the same home a number of times, photograph different parts of the apartment, and work on scanned negatives in the post production to make the spaces look continuous.
Slovenc is interested in the performative aspect of our daily lives. What particularly fascinates him is the idea of a domestic space as a "scene" in which we perform our daily routines. By photographing the homes of S&M practitioners in particular, and by contrasting the performative space with the traditional domestic space, Slovenc ultimately questions the notion of the latter as something that is spontaneously, creatively designed-or "authored"-by us as individuals. After the sadomasochistic act is over and the "performers" step into the domestic space, do we cease acting or do we merely exchange scripts? Does the traditional domestic space, then, become a performative space as well?
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
) is a Croatian fine art photographer based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He holds MS in Biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
from University of Zagreb
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...
and MFA in Photography from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
School of Art.http://hrvojeslovenc.com/text/biography.html
His photographs have been exhibited in dozens of shows nationally and internationally including Museum of Contemporary Photography
Museum of Contemporary Photography
The Museum of Contemporary Photography was founded in 1984 by Columbia College Chicago. It is well known for an active program and curating which discovers many emerging and mid-career artists...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/art-design/20876/relative-closenesshttp://www.mocp.org/exhibitions/2007/06/summer_show_fam.php, Museum of New Art in Detroit, and The Bronx Museum of the Arts
Bronx Museum of the Arts
The Bronx Museum of the Arts is a cultural institution located in the New York City borough of The Bronx. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th century works created by American artists, and it has hosted exhibitions of art and design from Latin America, Africa and Asia...
http://hrvojeslovenc.com/text/biography.html. Also, he is a recipient of London Photography Award, International Photography Award, Golden Light Award, Photography Now Award, BRIO Awardhttp://www.bronxarts.org/brio_recipients.asp, as well as Mortimer Hays-Brandeishttp://www.brandeis.edu/mhb/recipient/2007-08.htmlhttp://www1.cuny.edu/forum/?p=1510 and Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowships.
Slovenc was part of 2011 AIM residency program at The Bronx Museum of Art. Slovenc has been a visiting artist at institutions including Drew University
Drew University
Drew University is a private university located in Madison, New Jersey.Originally established as the Drew Theological Seminary in 1867, the university later expanded to include an undergraduate liberal arts college in 1928 and commenced a program of graduate studies in 1955...
, The City College, and LaGuardia Community College
LaGuardia Community College
LaGuardia Community College is a two-year community college located in the Hunter's Point section of Long Island City in the New York City borough of Queens, and is a component of the City University of New York. LaGuardia is named after former Congressman and New York mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia...
http://hrvojeslovenc.com/text/biography.html.
Major Works
In the series Partners in Crime, Slovenc creates wedding portraits of long term same sex couples. Inspired by late nineteenth-century cabinet cards, Slovenc photographs these couples to appear both physically and emotionally disconnected. In conflating images of stiff, traditional marriage poses and contemporary domestic spaces, Slovenc captures the public face that society mandates for same-sex couples. For the series Breathing in KabweKabwe
Kabwe is the capital of the Zambian Central Province with a population estimated at 210,000. Formerly named Broken Hill, it was founded when the Broken Hill lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902. Kabwe also has a claim to being the birthplace of Zambian politics...
, Slovenc traveled to Kabwe, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
to photograph the effects of lead pollution on the local population. With photographs and text, Slovenc has transformed a typical documentary subject matter in such a way that it has become not only about the observed or the observer as individual entities, not about “us” or “them” as two very distinct cultures, but primarily about the relationship between the two. In his most recent body of work Home Theater, Slovenc photographs domestic spaces in which sadomasochistic sex acts are taking place.
Partners in Crime (2007)
Partners in Crime focuses on same-sex couples that have been living together for an extended period of time, eighteen years on average. The idea was inspired by late nineteenth-century wedding portraits and the professional techniques employed in them. While most of the earlier works were produced as cabinet cards, shot in studios with artificial backgrounds, Slovenc’s reconstructions are in color, taken in the couples' homes. The purpose is to demonstrate the mundane quality of what can only be seen as a marriage setting. In these photos, the author captures the public face that society mandates for same-sex couples. These couples appear to be both physically and emotionally disconnected because in many ways, both subtle and overt, that is how they are told they should behave. Thus in conflating images of stiff, traditional marriage poses and contemporary domestic spaces, Slovenc has sought to normalize what is still, at best, a hotly contested relationship in American society.Breathing in Kabwe (2008)
Funded by the Mortimer-Hays Brandeis Traveling Fellowship, Slovenc traveled to Kabwe, Zambia to photograph the effects of lead pollution on the local population. In preparing for the trip, and especially during his stay there, the initial idea evolved to include not only an illustrated essay about people living in an entirely lead-tainted environment but also a deconstruction of the act of photographing the Other. Throughout the months Slovenc lived in Kabwe, he was only too aware of himself, and his own cultural positioning that constituted a very powerful filter through which he viewed things. For that reason, Slovenc invited his friend and writer Donald Mengay to join him on the trip and write a memoir of their experiences. In the actual prints, Slovenc have reproduced Mengay’s manuscript in excerpt form alongside the images. Rather than privilege either verbal or visual text as the more "authentic," i.e. closer to "reality," Slovenc showed the way in which each type of representation imparts a small, though important, perspective on what he came to decipher as "the real." Ultimately the project has become part travel journal, part interview, part documentary, part autobiography, and part revelation. In short, this project is Slovenc’s way of approaching a typical documentary subject matter in such a way that it has become not only about the observed or the observer as individual entities, not about “us” or “them” as two very distinct cultures, but primarily about the relationship between the two.Home Theater (2010)
In the series Home Theater Slovenc photographs domestic spaces in which sadomasochistic sexSex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
acts are taking place. These images grew out of his personal experience in which he solicited people on numerous sex websites where he presented myself as an S&M practitioner. Even though the images are of the actual, lived-in domestic spaces, they appear to be artificial, hyperreal, grand, and with a slightly distorted perspective, as if constructed as sets for a movie or a play. To achieve that effect, Slovenc had to return to the same home a number of times, photograph different parts of the apartment, and work on scanned negatives in the post production to make the spaces look continuous.
Slovenc is interested in the performative aspect of our daily lives. What particularly fascinates him is the idea of a domestic space as a "scene" in which we perform our daily routines. By photographing the homes of S&M practitioners in particular, and by contrasting the performative space with the traditional domestic space, Slovenc ultimately questions the notion of the latter as something that is spontaneously, creatively designed-or "authored"-by us as individuals. After the sadomasochistic act is over and the "performers" step into the domestic space, do we cease acting or do we merely exchange scripts? Does the traditional domestic space, then, become a performative space as well?
Exhibitions
- The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, NY. Biennial 2011.
- Museum of New Art, Detroit, MI. New Media, Sex, and Culture in the 21st Century.
- Michael Mazzeo Gallery, New York, NY. Home Theater.
- Galerija Marisall, Zagreb, Croatia. Novi Likovni Izricaji.
- Eight Veil Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
- David Weinberg Gallery, Chicago, IL.
- Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY.
- Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA. Dream Nation.
- 25CPW, New York, NY. Stranger than Fiction.
- Kitchen Habitat, New York, NY. Objects in the Mirror.
- 2010 Art Chicago, Chicago, IL. New Insight.
- Longwood Art Gallery, New York, NY. Anthem: an all-American dystopia.
- 2009 Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China. Breaking Boundaries II.
- Parachute Factory Gallery, New Haven, CT. Family Business.
- Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL. Relative Closeness: Portraits of Family and Friends.
- Vollitant Gallery, Austin, TX. Tunnel Vision: Parading Down the Aisle.
- Farmani Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. IPA Best of Show.
- Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA. Annual Center Awards Exhibition.
- Northwest Art Center, Minot, ND. Americas.
- Gallery 214, Montclair, NJ. Taboo.
- Go Fish Gallery, New York, NY.
External links
- http://hrvojeslovenc.com
- http://daedalusphoto.com
- http://michaelmazzeo.com