Recent exhibitions
2023
WANDER
Nov-Dec, 2023 : Wander, garden installation at The Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY.
Wander is an invitation to observe the growth of underground plant organisms as well as our memories. The ground constellation of glowing root patterns guides us through the artist's personal melange of real and imaginary dear places (from Tunisia to Provence to Brooklyn) forming nomadic routes of dreams and memories.
As microbiologist Lynn Margulis stated in the gaia hypothesis: “the sum of all life on the planet behaves as a single integrated physiological system. The traditionally viewed 'inert environment' is highly active, forming an integral part of the Gaian system.” Revon adds her memories to this integrated system, forming hypnotic patterns that remind us of the strength, interconnectivity and cross vibrations of all life on earth.
In healthy forests, recent studies show that trees are most probably connected to others via roots and mycorrhizal networks, enabling trees to share water and nutrients. This project is a good reminder that, as German forester Peter Wohlleben puts it, "there are more life forms in a handful of forest soil than there are people on the planet. A mere teaspoonful contains many miles of fungal filaments.”
ENCOUNTERS
August 5-28: Encounters, solo exhibition co-curated with Aude Adrien, RU Koda House 404, Governors Island, NY.
On view: Fri-Sun from August 5-28, 2023
Microbiologist Lynn Margulis stated in the gaia hypothesis: “the sum of all life on the planet behaves as a single integrated physiological system. The traditionally viewed 'inert environment' is highly active, forming an integral part of the Gaian system.”
Encounter by the RU local artist Roxane Revon presents a one month "evolutive" solo exhibition aimed at engaging a dialogue between Governors Island's active layers of life and matter and the artist's own intimate experience of the place. Activating the KODA/RU house space and its long time history, Revon looks at transforming the instability of indoors and outdoors conditions to develop an aesthetical experiment that welcomes precarity, movement and spontaneity. Inspired by Walter Benjamin's "tikkun olam" concept, which, in Judaism, refers to an action intended to repair and improve the surroundings, Revon's resulting exhibition will evolve over the course of a few weeks as it deconstructs the land’s elements (endemic seeds, rocks, minerals, wood, organic waste) and rebuilds it in various experimental artworks that transform the space.
Encounters is also the title of an outdoor series of evolutive mycelium artworks developed by Roxane Revon together with the designer and architect Kamilla Csegzi for the SMACH biennale in the Dolomites where they were selected as finalists. Revon is thrilled to develop their concept further by creating indoor mycelium shapes based on her wandering on Governors Island.
METAPHOR-MOSIS
July 11-14: Metaphor-mosis, collective exhibition curated by Ru Marshall, Residency Unlimited, 360 Court Street, Brooklyn NY 11231
On view: July 11, 12-8pm | July 12 & 13, 11am-6pm | July 14, 11am-4pm, a collective exhibition featuring Elisa Bertaglia, Radek Brousil, Jingwei Qiu, Roxane Revon.
“There are moments,” writes Michel Foucault, “where the question of knowing if one can think otherwise than one thinks and see otherwise than one sees is indispensable ….” Metaphor-mosis brings together four local and international artists participating in Residency Unlimited’s Brooklyn based Artist in Residency program. Their work, largely created during their time in residency, explores hidden processes of micro-transformation through which new approaches to seeing and new systems of meaning can emerge.
UNNATURAL PROCESSES
June 30-July 29: UNnatural Processes, collective exhibition curated by Valerie Hallier, Westbeth gallery, 55 Bethune St, New York, NY 10014
A collective exhibition featuring artists Aston Philip, Christina Massey, Jean Foos, Katherine Bennett, Linda Loh, Roxane Revon, Tessa Grundon and Valérie Hallier.
Nature is an all encompassing entity that exists without humans. Yet, it is impossible to think of humanity as an entity that could exist without nature. Seeing humanity and all its actions as part of nature is more reasonable. French anthropologist, Philippe Descola, observes 4 ways of “being” in the world as humans: animism, totemism, analogism and naturalism. If we agree that our thought processes are firmly welded into Western philosophy, prizing the rational, scientific, and logical, we can then agree that we embody naturalism. Yet as artists we are open to other ways of being, thinking, and seeing. The work of the eight international artists featured in this show revisits our contemporary relationship with the non-human. A great variety of mediums and processes are all centered around new ways to visualize and interact with our environment: virtual, real, or re-created.
ROON RHIZOMES
Oct 13-Dec 13 2022: ROON’S RHIZOMES, solo exhibition curated by Vanessa Selk, Cinema Supply Gallery, Chelsea NY -
Rhizomes are underground plant stems that grow horizontally, capable of nourishing other plants when they are about to die, contrary to roots that grow vertically. Their complex connecting life system inspired French philosophers Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) and Félix Guattari (1930-1992) to imagine a model of Western society based on horizontal networks, growing from a small seed into a larger form of arborescence. Similarly, Martinican author, poet and philosopher Edouard Glissant (1928-2011) used the rhizome metaphor to propose a radically new approach to what identity is: we are not defined by our roots or where we are from, but by the encounters we make and connect to through time and space throughout our lives. ROxane RevOn, also known as “Roon” (“rooted” in France and Tunisia, “rhizomed” through Europe and the USA), has been carefully studying, photographing, sketching and mapping plant roots of various underground ecosystems. Spreading like sprouts, her works bring to light delicate and invisible living creatures that invite us to unearth our own roots and foundations. These series are the result of a long and dense journey, in which Roon herself grew through different encounters while experiencing a pandemic, a separation, identity questions and a rebirth. This exhibition is an invitation to follow Roon’s underground path and encounters through different specific geographic locations and years, to unground ourselves and maybe sprout again… This exhibition was produced and supported by Cinema Supply.
HIDDEN PLACES
June 2-15, 2022: Hidden Places, solo Exhibition, FIAF , NY
FIAF is delighted to welcome multi-disciplinary artist Roxane Revon to the FIAF Gallery to present Hidden Places. Inspired by the complexity, elegance, and hidden beauty of root systems, this exhibition features a series of ink drawings and oil pastel, as well as a video installation to bring these “hidden places” into view.
Revon follows a methodical process that includes mapping the underground ecosystem of a specific geographic location, as well as germinating, photographing, and sketching a variety of plant roots. From these studies, emerge the vibrant, delicate lines that spread throughout her work. With each drawing and each unique sprout of roots, Revon invites us to imagine a perspective different from our own. See details here.
Exhibition curated by Lola Siena & Tatyana Frank with the support of the LMCC Engagement Grant.
ROON’S ROOTS
Unfix Festival NYC @ Grace & St. Paul's Church, NYC, May 21, 2022 from 6-10pm.
As a LMCC CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT grantee 2022, I’m glad to present my “Roon’s Roots” installation with butoh performer Yokko on May 21st at the UNFIX FESTIVAL NYC!
This installation seeks to change our perspective on nature, mostly perceived as a surrounding environment. Through a wander around this installation, the public, led by butoh dancer Yokko, will visually experience how their vibrations and movements constitute an environment to nature. This work is inspired by anthropologists Philippe Descola and Natasha Myers
who created the term “planthroposcene” an “aspirational episteme, not a timebound era, one that invites us to stage new scenes and new ways to see and seed plant/people relations in the here and now, not some distant future”.
EXQUISITE CORPSE
Jill Krutrick Fine Art Gallery & SHIM ECO @ Venice Biennale & Miami Aqua during Art Basel, July-September, 2021-2022.
As a LMCC CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT grantee 2022, I’m glad to present my “Roon’s Roots” installation with butoh performer Yokko on May 21st at the UNFIX FESTIVAL NYC!
This installation seeks to change our perspective on nature, mostly perceived as a surrounding environment. Through a wander around this installation, the public, led by butoh dancer Yokko, will visually experience how their vibrations and movements constitute an environment to nature. This work is inspired by anthropologists Philippe Descola and Natasha Myers.
who created the term “planthroposcene” an “aspirational episteme, not a timebound era, one that invites us to stage new scenes and new ways to see and seed plant/people relations in the here and now, not some distant future”.