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  • Photo of a dark-skinned young couple sitting on a bed, embracing. She wears shorts and a tank, he wears an undershirt and jeans. The bedspread is gold satin with fringe.

Deana Lawson

Binky and Tony Forever

Maker

Deana Lawson (American, b. 1979), (RISD MFA 2004, Photography)

Title

Binky and Tony Forever

Year

2009

Medium

  • Pigmented inkjet print

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Pigmented inkjet print

Dimensions

Frame: 96.5 x 112.1 cm (38 x 44 1/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

laumont mounting and framing label on back of frame in l.l. corner

Identification

Edition

5/6

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum purchase: Gift of Judy and Robert Mann and Walter H. Kimball Fund

Object Number

2017.52

Type

  • Photographs

Publications

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 16: Intimacy

RISD Museum’s Manual 16 Embraces Intimacy

Intimacy reveals something deeply human in us. We need each other on a practical level, which means having to trust strangers. It’s analogous to what I understand prayer requires and what writing poems requires: an openness to the unknown, coupled with trust, a belief that we won’t be hurt. It’s at once akin to and the same as devotion.
-Carl Phillips

The RISD Museum’s sixteenth issue of Manual touches on the bonds of intimacy and its many expressions. This issue complements the exhibition Any distance between us, co-curated by Stephen Truax and Dominic Molon, on view at the RISD Museum through March 13, 2022.

Exhibition History

Any distance between us
Jul 17, 2021 – Mar 13, 2022

Label copy

“A lot of my work is about what I don’t see in popular media culture, and to me I felt like I needed to make an image that was about embracing and intimacy and support, physically, between young people, particularly young Black people. I usually find strangers, and I photograph in their environment. When I asked Binky where she wanted to photograph, I don’t think she was comfortable at her place, so we decided to do it at my apartment inBed-Stuy, Brooklyn. So the picture’s actually in my apartment, it’s my bedroom. Often, I rearrange things in the environment, but in Binky and Tony Forever, my bedroom pretty much looked like that.”

-Deana Lawson, 2016

The Phantom of Liberty
Contemporary Works in the RISD Museum Collection
May 04, 2018 – Dec 30, 2018

Label copy

A lot of my work is about what I don’t see in popular media culture, and to me I felt like I needed to make an image that was about embracing and intimacy and support, physically, between young people, particularly young black people. I usually find strangers, and I photograph in their environment. When I asked Binky where she wanted to photograph, I don’t think she was comfortable at her place, so we decided to do it at my apartment in BedStuy, Brooklyn. So the picture’s actually in my apartment, it’s my bedroom. Often, I rearrange things in the environment but in Binky & Tony Forever, my bedroom pretty much looked like that.

-Deana Lawson

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Deana Lawson (American, b. 1979)
Binky and Tony Forever, 2009
Pigmented inkjet print
Frame: 96.5 x 112.1 cm (38 x 44 1/8 inches)
Museum purchase: Gift of Judy and Robert Mann and Walter H. Kimball Fund 2017.52

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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