Deana Lawson

Binky and Tony Forever

Maker

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

Title

Binky and Tony Forever

Year

2009

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

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

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

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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

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