Xenia
Arian Christiaens
Xenia is a combination of recent and past portraits that Arian Christiaens made of her sister. Christiaens uses the act of creating portraits as an attempt to communicate and understand her sister’s personality. ‘Xenia’ handles the search for identity and how people struggle with fitting in society. Next to this search for identity, Christiaens also addresses the limitations of portraiture and the inability of photography to tell the truth. What is constructed and what is real? Who is Xenia as a character and what does she express?
The fear to exist, to (not) feel at ease in your own body and environment, the complexity of ones personality are themes that Christiaens deals with in a publication that floats between a photographic documentary and a (staged) story.
Lien Van Leemput 2019
Arian Christiaens (°1981) has been working as a photographer, artist and photography teacher since graduating as a Master at KASK (Ghent, Belgium) in 2004 and participated in masterclasses with Max Pinckers, Paul Kooiker, Laura El Tentawy and Vincent Delbrouck from 2017 onwards.
Her work is centered around investigations of her family relations and the constructed nature of their identities.
In 2019 Christiaens published her first artist book ‘Xenia’ through APE (Art Paper Editions) in which portraits of her sister, who used to be her brother, float between documentary and fiction. The publication was shortlisted for the Arles Photobook Award.
Her most recent work ‘In Camera’, is the result of Christiaens comparing her own relationship, her own person and her own intimate photographical archive with the one of her mother. She questions the relation between man and woman, photographer and model, over time and within her own family history.
‘In Camera’ will be on show in FOMU (Fotomuseum Anwerpen) this summer as part of the exhibition ‘TIFF Emerging Belgian Photography’ and will be published as an artist book in 2022.
In camera
With In Camera Christiaens juxtaposes her own relationship, her own identity and her own images with those of her parents. In doing so, she calls into question the traditional relationship between men and woman and between photographer and model, both over time and within her own family history. Gazes cross and are reflected within the image, outside the image and through the image. It’s about different perspectives in different times, about similarities and differences. It’s about looking at ourselves, our bodies, our loved ones and others trough the eye of the camera. About exploring the different layers and histories these gazes hold - the gaze of the loved one, the gaze of an artist, the reflected gaze in the mirror – and how they help shape our identity, both within ourselves and through the other.
Stefan Vanthuyne 2022