DOUBLE BLESSINGS
Creator: Anna Delany and Dave Huavi
Artform: photography / exhibition
Timeframe: Exhibition Opening Friday 18th November. Full exhibition details below.
Location: across the Māngere Ōtāhuhu Local Board area.
Double Blessings is a series of black and white film photographs documenting twins of varying ages, ethnicities and backgrounds in South Auckland.
The series of black and white photographs portray a cross-section of kids, teenagers and young adults from the neighbourhoods in and around Māngere and Ōtāhuhu. The candid photographs seek to document and immortalise everyday lives’ in a strikingly beautiful way, through the theme of twins, both identical and fraternal.
Double Blessings provides a platform for these young people to have their own unique stories and experiences of adolescence shared with the world. The series will culminate in a photographic exhibition at Māngere Arts Centre- Ngā Tohu o Uenuku in November 2022.
At the conclusion of the exhibition, the prints will be gifted to the families of the twins in each photograph.
This is a two part project whereby we are contributing to the production of the photographs with the children and families involved, before supporting Anna to develop it as an exhibition.
EXHIBITION DETAILS
Double Blessings - Anna Delany
Anna Delany’s photographic series Double Blessings documents young identical and fraternal twins across Tāmaki Makaurau.
Twins have long been associated with duality, harmony, good luck, and the idea of perfect balance. The symbiotic nature of twins means that while they share a duality and are connected, they are also unique and have separate identities. Double Blessings celebrates the individual personalities of these young twins and the eternal bond they share.
19 November 2022 – 28 January 2023
Exhibition opening: Friday 18 November, 6pm
Māngere Arts Centre – Ngā Tohu o Uenuku
WORKSHOP DETAILS
Cyanotype sun printing workshop:
Saturday 3 December, 10am–12pm
This interactive workshop explores the ancient photographic process of cyanotype. You will learn how to create a cyanotype print using a selection of found objects. All participants will be able to take home their own print. Suitable for ages 10+. Booking is essential; please contact the gallery.
ABOUT ANNA
Having worked as a documentary photographer in Brooklyn, New York for nearly a decade, I now wish to carry out my first photography series since returning home, documenting New Zealanders. I have worked, and continue to work in the Arts and with youth, so this project is a natural and genuine integration of the two. Being involved with the creative process in "Double Blessings" will be an entry point for many of these young people into the world of Art. Not only will seeing their lives celebrated and showcased in an exhibition be beneficial to their developing identities and foster a sense of pride, but it also has the potential to introduce and attract young people to a world which until now may not have presented itself as a possibility to operate within. These young people all have stories to share and documenting these through "Double Blessings" provides an ideal opportunity for them to do so. In my own career as a practicing artist, I have had and been part of many successful photographic exhibitions, both within Aotearoa and internationally.
