The art of aging
Arianne Clément
This event has concluded
Dates:
Entry Fee:
Free
Exhibition Event:
Official Opening
03/05/2020 3:00 pm
Arianne Clément. A vision of beauty that is removed from learned ideals and youth.
This project owes its existence to a revelation I experienced when I encountered Marie-Berthe, a young 102-year-old beauty whose ease and casualness in front of the lens was as impressive as it was inspiring. I was immediately taken with the old woman and the way she totally – almost unconsciously – felt beautiful and attractive and was not afraid to show it off. What if beauty could not be reduced to an idealised aesthetic? What if, beyond the traces left by the passage of time on our features, beauty could be something less tangible but more lasting?
This vision is far removed from learned ideas and clichés commonly associated with beauty. It doesn’t have to be something that we are born with or without and neither does it have to be the privilege of youth. Beauty has to be much more and hopefully much better than this. It is a way of being. Something to cultivate, teach and learn from, and something that each of the eight women (and two men) that reveal themselves in this project are marvellous examples of. As models, they have been a great inspiration to me and it is my hope that my portraits will transmit their spirit and maybe also a precious lesson on the venerable art of aging.
While working as a journalist in Nunavut, Arianne Clément began playing with photography. This experience inspired her to do a Master’s degree in photojournalism at the University of the Arts of London, which she obtained with honours. During her numerous trips abroad, she developed a photographic style that combines both art and documentary. From the Great North to the West Coast, the Amazon to Eastern Europe, Argentina to Ireland, her most recurrent themes are the forgotten ones, the excluded, and the marginalized.
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