Couples Discourse

In his book A Lover’s Discourse , Roland Barthes attempted to theorize the language used by lovers to describe each other. It is arguably a text about loneliness, suggesting that even romantic language confesses the distance that always exists between people: if we could achieve perfect unity with others, language would not be necessary. This catalogue documents an exhibition about how couples discourse - about the ways in which artists cope with the social connections and practicalities of being artists in a couple. It is about the commonalities as well as the differences, the intimacies as well as the public articulations - in other words, the negotiations that are required in any relationship. It might be a truism to say that the very notion of the couple is undergoing significant transformation at the moment. Legal changes now allow many same-sex marriages in the United States, even as increasing numbers of people both gay and straight choose to enjoy unions and family structures beyond such conventional forms. Now is, of course, the perfect time to investigate more carefully the ways in which artists construct and articulate their positions as couples.