Reasons to Be Cheerful

Reasons to Be Cheerful deals with the problematics of portraiture and the supposed weight of image making. The book is a portrait of the artist’s mother Sally Kovacsik. The first chapter, composed of portraits made by Sally’s husband Geert Delanghe, show her before and after childbirth. The second chapter juxtaposes family portraits with objects, rooms, letters and notes. Each image of the book functions as contained gesture, seeking both remoteness and closeness. Moreover, photographs of Welsh castles repeat this conflicting movement. Reasons to be Cheerful is a disorientation of images, a fragmented portrait.
A selection of images from the series Reason to Be Cheerful were shown at S.M.A.K. Ghent at the group show Coming People 2016.