Lament: Bettina von Zwehl in conversation with Josh Cohen

Lament: Bettina von Zwehl in conversation with Josh Cohen

Lament is a new publication by Art/Books, which features two series of images by artist Bettina von Zwehl with new writing by psychoanalyst Josh Cohen. Cohen’s two texts are interwoven amongst the images, one a critical reflection on light and shadow, the other a poetic tale inspired by the torn photographs.

This evening they will discuss both the publication and von Zwehl’s exhibition Invitation to Frequent the Shadows, on display at the Museum 7 June – 17 July 2016.

Lament is published by Art/Books (July, 2016). Available from the Museum shop.

Bettina von Zwehl lives and works in London. She has an MA Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art and BA (Hons) Photography from the London College of Printing. Recent solo exhibitions include Album 31, (with Sophy Rickett), 2015, Fotogaleriet, Oslo, Norway, touring to The Library of Birmingham, UK; Purdy Hicks, London (2014 and 2011); Road to 2012, Setting Out, commissioned by National Portrait Gallery, London, 2010; and The Photographers’ Gallery, 2005. Group exhibitions include Facing Histories, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2015; Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present, National Gallery, London and touring to Fundacio La Caixa, Madrid, Spain, 2012 and In Repose, The Galleries at Moore, Philadelphia El Cuerpo (con) sentido: una (re)presentación visual, Centro de Historia, Zaragosa, 2008. Her work is held in many collections including Arts Council, London; British Council, London; Sammlung Spallart, Salzburg, Austria; Guggenheim, New York and Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.

Josh Cohen is a practising psychoanalyst and Professor of Modern Literary Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of The Private Life: Why We Remain in the Dark (2013), which won the BMA Board of Science Chair’s Choice Award for 2014 and was longlisted for the JQ/Wingate Literary Award, How to Read Freud (2005), Interrupting Auschwitz: Art, Religion, Philosophy (2003) and Spectacular Allegories: Postmodern American Writing and the Politics of Seeing (1998). He writes regularly for the TLS, Guardian, Prospect and New Statesman and is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society.