so sweet and so cold

an exhibition of Polaroids and writing

Exhibition ran from june 14th through July 7th, 2024 at
Gravedigger’s Daughter Gallery, Waldoboro, ME

 

so sweet and so cold is an exhibition of original Polaroids in playful settings, utilizing colorful mats and alternative layouts. The work in this show explores a realm of male bonding amongst straight and gay friendships in which nudity plays an active role in neutralizing positions of assumed power between the individuals. As a reference to the photo book and narrative image sequencing, the work on the walls aims to construct small scenes of play, levity, and admiration throughout the show. The variety of colored mats offer a range of tonality which bring out certain elements inherently a part of the Polaroid, additionally creating an opportunity to project mood amongst the Polaroid diptychs and triptychs themselves.

so sweet and so cold harkens back to times in adolescence when the pressures of hiding oneself amongst straight peers was so forcefully self-imposed that fears and anxieties of unworthiness and subservience dictated how the artist could form friendships and move through the world, aiming to appear non-threatening to these straight friends while also admiring them as both objects of affection and for the people they were.


Opening Echoes

a solo exhibition of handbound books, photographs, and writing

Exhibition ran from April 22nd through May 28th, 2022 at
Gallery Kayafas, Boston, MA

 

Opening Echoes is Byrne’s first solo exhibition, and consists of four bodies of work that share a search for rationale, comfort, and desire in a recollection of histories which may not exist. The books, installations, and assembled photographs are contemplations on the power of nostalgia, including a longing for things that never happened; the urge to salvage a misspent adolescence; the need for reason amid romantic discordance; and the effort to reclaim ownership over a body and self when they suddenly feel foreign.”