Reasons to Be Cheerful by Chloë Delanghe deals with the problematic of portraiture and the supposed weight of image making. The book is a fragmented portrait of the artist’s mother Sally Kovacsik. The first chapter, composed of portraits made by Sally’s husband Geert Delanghe, shows her just before and after childbirth. The second chapter, on the contrary, juxtaposes family portraits with objects, rooms, letters and notes. Each image of the book functions as contained gestures, seeking both remoteness and closeness. Moreover, photographs of Welsh castles repeat this conflicting movement. Reasons to be Cheerful is a disorientation of images, a fragmented portrait.
Editor: Chloë Delanghe
Graphic Designer: Dylan Van Elewyck
Photography: Chloë Delanghe and Geert Delanghe
Text: Sally Gabrielle Kovacsik
Published by WIELS, Brussels and Motto Books, Lausanne/Berlin
Softcover with dust jacket, perfect-bound, colour.