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Career Development
Visual Artists' News Sheet | March – April 2021
Renèe Helèna Browne, Sacred Disease, 2019, HD video, installation view; image courtesy the artist.
RENÈE HELÈNA BROWNE is a self-described ‘teenage fanboy’. The diverse
Teenage Fanboy GWEN BURLINGTON DISCUSSES THE WORK OF IRISH ARTIST RENÈE HELÈNA BROWNE.
modes of their practice – which include writing, sound, film and sculpture, often taking an autobiographical approach – are underpinned by fandom as a means of constructing identity. Rooted in writing, their work is also about language and how gender and class are inherently inscribed in the sounds we utter. Originally from Donegal and currently based in Glasgow, Browne has a research-based practice with many institutional ties, having just been announced as Talbot Rice Resident Artist with Edinburgh College of Art at the University of Edinburgh, and having also been a Research Associate with the Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry last year. In recent work, Browne adeptly mobilises text, image and sound to create montages that persistently reflect on ideas of trans embodiment, masculinity and voice. Browne’s video essays combine a broad range of filmic devices, creating multi-layered narratives. A recent moving-image work, Daddy’s Boy (2020) – shown at Berwick Film and Media Festival and aemi screenings – explores ideas of hegemonic masculinity through collaged video footage of Browne’s father, who goes about his business on the family farm with a bland acquiescence to the camera’s gaze. Part recorded during lockdown in rural Donegal and part assembled from a larger archive Browne had unconsciously been building over time, the film is layered with the artist’s lyrical voiceover, describing their fascination with the popular film classic, Jurassic Park, and in particular, the T-Rex. Throughout the film, Browne’s fandom operates as a means of self-critique. Browne’s queer identification with and adoration of the monstrous creature of T-Rex is a vehicle through which the artist is able to reflect upon and perform their own (conflicted) gender identity and learned masculinity. As Browne moulds a T-Rex into form with pink and orange plasticine, the object of desire is identified and possessed through this act of moulding. Combined with the footage of Browne’s father – a manifestation of their desire to be the archetypal lone, self-sufficient, unquestioned male – fandom becomes a way into trans identification, presenting the
