NYAB Event - Bill Hayden "Coconuts"

Bill Hayden "Coconuts"

Real Fine Arts

This event has ended.

The photographs in Coconuts assemble into a laconic typology of this oft-exoticised flora. Hayden’s
hair-in-the-breeze photographic approach easily posits this tropical form’s subjection to the rigorously familiar-
ized cultural abstractions of Corona’s chillwave advertisements, Sandals’ family-friendly colonialism, Zico’s
life-nourishing hygienics or Hedonism II’s keg-stands in the sand. When displaced from such marketed con-
texts—and no longer soundtracked to Jack Johnson or Neon Indian—the hungover reality of these trees comes
into focus. Sharply contrasting the vectorized front cover and its bejeweled back, these au naturel images often
fall short of their advertised expectations. Yet this isn’t quite tropical malaise or a journalistic account of Mont-
ezuma’s revenge. Rather, throughout Hayden’s photographs, one detects a lackadaisical ambling that repeatedly
seeks to find the care-free life that these trees have come to advertise. Tourist snaps? Travel essay? Location
scouting? With these photos one is left to wonder, is Hayden searching for miracles or is it simply the beer?

Media

• Graphics
• Illustration
• Sculpture

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