Youvalle Levy

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youvalle.levy(at)gmail.com
IG @youvalle @replika.publishing

Blue Plate Special

"Blue Plate Special" (BPS) – a photographic series that is printed on handcrafted ceramic plates, using Cyanotype technique and accented with silver-coated rims.

The plates are produced in a limited edition of 6+ap, with each plate being unique due to the long process of making them. The process begins with taking the photographs, mainly on 35mm film, which are then transformed into 1:1 negatives. These images are delicately printed onto the Bisque ware plates using the intricate cyanotype method. This process ensures that each plate becomes unique for a distinct interplay of variables, ranging from the subtle idiosyncrasies of the ceramic surface to nuanced factors like exposure duration and chemical mix.

In 2021 Levy started taking photographs of food; Her subjects ranged from dishes found in restaurants, home-cooked meals, fresh produce from local markets, pastries, and even the bounties of her own garden. Infused with personal narratives, each photograph resonates with memories of gatherings with loved ones or just simple breakfast. By immortalising these snapshots on ceramic plates, Levy elevates the significance of these instances, creating souvenirs-like items from day-to-day events.

The distinct Prussian Blue hues, of the cyanotype printing on ceramics, corresponds with traditional Chinese porcelain ware or “fine china”, which are common collectable items that usually depicts beautiful nature scenes. A nuance surfaces as Levy's photographes of pizza slices or English breakfasts against this backdrop of refined blue ceramics, creating an interplay of contrasts that adds a bit of humour to the photographic series.

The name Blue Plate Special draws from the Diners in North America where the term 'Blue Plate Special' means Today's Special or Dish of the Day.

The BPS installation is a site-specific exhibition featuring six plates arranged on a dining table with a white tablecloth and silverware. Additionally, four plates are displayed on the wall, and two plates are positioned on two plinths. Each of the twelve has a unique print.

BPS launched in a group exhibition in Berlin, Germany called SUPERIOR COMFORT. The exhibition was set in a hotel room using the room as a gallery space. 2 plates from the series BPS were installed, one as if it was room service; on a tray with coffee cup, vase with a single flower on the hotel bed. And the other in the bathroom standing on a plate holder situated near the hotel bathroom sink.

Moonlighting : traces and found objects

Moonlighting by Youvalle Levy is a series-based, photographic work created within the confines of Levy’s side-job as a private cleaner inBerlin. Objects and spaces have been documented, as though by a forensic investigator, with each item revealing a small glimpse into the lives of her clients.

Through different image styles, Levy delves into the private lives of her employers, but her discoveries are limited by what each person leaves out in the open; unaware of how much a small object reveals to an outsider.

In the style of forensic photography, objects are over exposed with an unforgiving flash, objects removed from their context are shown in vibrant clarity and degraded smartphone screen shots invite the viewer into the relationship between Levy and her clients.

Levy photographs each item with the respect and understanding of an anthropologist, endeavouring to relay the delicacy and beauty in her subjects.

Moonlighting was shortlisted for the ‘Photographic Museum of Humanity’Grant March of this 2021.

Text from the project;

"I arrived at the building at 13:22, I always check the time as I'm approaching the building. I could hear electronic music coming from the first floor where the flat is. I guess David heard me too, because he was waiting for me in-front of his door. He was standing there wearing only his black boxers shorts, trying to put his white T-shirt on. His eyes were wide open and he was licking his upper lip a lot. When I came inside he gave me a hug, we never hugged before. As we were hugging he whispered to me “there is a guy inside”, I laughed, not knowing how else to respond."

Replika Publishing

Co-Founded by Freya Copeland and Youvalle Levy in Berlin in 2015, Replika Publishing is an independent publishing house producing work under two main branches; Replika Volumes and Replika Artist Books. Influenced by ‘Fluxus’, we explore new methods of exhibition through printed matter and book arts. We seek to provide artists with a platform which is indiscriminate when it comes to place, gender, and career, and one which is able to focus purely on conceptual engagement

Replika Volumes are three dimensional, curated artist periodicals featuring the works of a selection of international artists and an artist catalogue which expands upon the edition with further contributors. With each issue, artists, writers, musicians and creators of all descriptions are invited to explore a given theme, and to respond with an object-based, serialised work.

Replika Artist Books are single artist/collective publications produced in close collaboration with selected artists with a particular focus of photography. From inception of the project through concept development, sequencing, layout, design, print and production to distribution and exhibition, Replika Artist Books are in small runs with a high attention to detail and materiality in order to best communicate the artist’s project. The outcome of each Replika Artist Book is an Art-Object of high conceptual and artistic content.

find more info on replikapublishing.com

Correspondence Series: Kalt, Weathering and Lar
by Freya Copeland and Youvalle Levy

Kalt is a visual conversation between the photographic artists Freya Copeland and Youvalle Levy, exploring the existential dread, boredom and isolation experienced in many northern European cities, in particular Berlin. The artists communicate, as if in written correspondence, the longing for their native lands’ warmth and light, while at the same time fi ghting against their native lands in order to fi nd comfort in their adopted city.

Weathering is the second in a series of visual conversations between the photographic artists Freya Copeland and Youvalle Levy. The artists communicate, as if in written correspondence, over the great distance forced upon them during international lockdowns and border closures as a result of the 2020 pandemic. Views are confi ned by window frames and through chain link fences, stray cats stare back at the viewer with piercing eyes. Weathering is a creative endeavour to bridge physical distance, and by chance, the two artists, though at complete antipodes from each other, make many analogous observations.

Lar is the third book in the ongoing photographic conversation> Correspondence.

From Spanish: Lar, m. god of the home and household ; (fig.) home, homestead.

In the third book of the series Copeland and Levy explore the meaning of Home, the way in which the feeling of home can change and the difficulties of acquiring the belonging to a new home.