Govy (born 12 April 1981) is a French artist diagnosed on the
autism spectrum
The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
in 2013, and is an advocate for the
neurodiversity movement
Neurodiversity refers to diversity in the human brain and cognition, for instance in sociability, learning, attention, mood and other mental functions.
It was coined in 1998 by sociologist Judy Singer, who helped popularize the concept alo ...
. Their career began after their interactive art piece ''Photographic Diary'' in 2000 to 2001. Govy's work, including under the work names "Kennedy James" and "Jimmy Owenns", has been exhibited internationally at the
Zendai MoMA of Shanghai,
Triennale Design Museum of Milan, Wiels Contemporary Art Center of Brussels,
Casoria Contemporary Art Museum of Naples, Rosario Museum of Contemporary Art of Santa Fe (Argentina) and
Nuit Blanche
Nuit Blanche () (White Night) is an annual all-night or night-time arts festival of a city. A Nuit Blanche typically has museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the ...
of Paris. They are the recipient of three
A' Design awards
and two
Videoformes awards.
Early work
Before debuting their visual work with photography, govy performed in a few theater, video pieces, and films, but then decided to focus on writing. In 1999, they published the first book on the internet that actually looked like a real book, which would be published in 2001 under the title ''Mes Cendres Nues'' by French publisher IDLivre. Their early writing is also part of the French poetry anthology ''Les Nouveaux Poètes Français et Francophones'', published by Edition Huguet in 2004.
Visual art
Govy is best known for their interactive art piece ''Photographic Diary'' (2000–2001) in which they took series of photographs every day during a year and the series of
Shibari
means "tight binding," while literally means "the beauty of tight binding." is a Japanese style of bondage or BDSM which involves tying a person up using simple yet visually intricate patterns, usually with several pieces of thin rope (often ...
installations ''Serial Bondage'' (2006–2013) which incorporates their fascination with Japanese rituals and aesthetics.
In 2000, they started the interactive piece where they photographed their daily life during one year without interruption.
This early piece launched their career as a visual artist as it was one of the first interactive pieces on the Internet at the time and created before the fashion of photographic diaries via blogs would start spreading worldwide in 2004. It could be considered an art piece very much about growing up on the
Autism spectrum
The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
and struggling with a personal quest of identity
or it could be seen as a work on the notions about the splitting of the perception, narration or psyche, and the search for identity.
This work has received two awards and has been exhibited internationally in art galleries and museums and was featured in the book ''Taschen’s 1000 Favorite Websites.''
Since 2015, govy has been focusing more on science and space art projects. They are mostly working on the concept of
spacetime
In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why differ ...
(or the
4th dimension) and a "specific individual human life in the bigger picture of the universe" with the "SpaceTime Coordinates" projects, which use data from
NASA JPL
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA a ...
to generate personalised art pieces.
Govy is the recipient of three
A' Design awards
and two
Videoformes awards.
Their work has been exhibited internationally at the
Zendai MoMA of Shanghai,
Triennale Design Museum of Milan, Wiels Contemporary Art Center of Brussels,
Casoria Contemporary Art Museum of Naples, Rosario Museum of Contemporary Art of Santa Fe (Argentina) and
Nuit Blanche
Nuit Blanche () (White Night) is an annual all-night or night-time arts festival of a city. A Nuit Blanche typically has museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the ...
of Paris. Their first design piece, the "Yozakura
sake set
A consists of the flask and cups used to serve ''sake''. ''Sake'' sets are commonly ceramic, but may be wood, lacquered wood, glass or plastic. The flask and cups may be sold individually or as a set.
Server
The server of a ''sake'' set is ...
" (designed under Their workname Kennedy James) was available at the
MoMA design store in NYC and Tokyo.
Pseudonyms
From 2001 until 2008, they used the artist name "Jimmy Owenns"
with the tagline "Artist Without a Sexual Identity". In 2008, they adopted their second artist name "Kennedy James"
and moved to New York City with an
artist visa. Since 2015, they has used the name "govy", their French family name.
Muse
In 2011, a photograph of their face was used to launch the
storytelling websit
Cowbird with the first story published "1000 Words" written by Scott Thrift.
The City and Horses
The City and Horses is an American indie pop band formed in Brooklyn in 2008. The members include flautist Domenica Fossati, drummer Chris Wirtalla, bassist Matt Manhire, lead guitarist Shane Connerty and synth/sax player Nikki D'Agostino, and s ...
pop band wrote the song "My Strange Ways" about their relationship in 2013.
References
External links
dontstareatthesun.comOfficial Website
govy.fr
spacetimecoordinates.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:govy
1981 births
Living people
21st-century French women artists
Artists with autism
Artists with disabilities
Autism activists
Feminist artists
French expatriates in Japan