CLAIRE DEKENS

01.Biography

Born in 1966, Claire Dekens discovered a way to express herself using photography at the age of 48.

Dekens graduated at the SASK (Stedelijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten) in Hasselt ( BE ) . In her ongoing quest of mastering the image, she enrolled into the Academic Visual Arts Photography at the LUCA School of Arts in Genk ( BE ). She put aside her job as a webdeveloper and became fulltime focussed at her new passion. Dekens’ photography is mainly charactarized by it’s use of vivid colors. Her work of art consists of still life, sometimes in combination with self-portraits and portraits. It often references social themes and is humorous too at times. Claire Dekens works and lives in Zonhoven, Belgium.

02.Artist Statement

Photography is a medium that can be used in various ways. One can make purely aesthetic work, show a story through

a documentary or make a statement based on staged still lifes and / or (self)portraits. Claire Dekens often uses the latter method. Themes such as environmental pollution, global warming and gender inequality are very important to her. When she makes still lifes, whether or not combined with (self) portraits, the photo-projects that originate out of those themes invariably kickstart with an extensive investigation into such a theme. With the acquired knowledge, she searches for an appropriate visual language to envision her story. Claire Dekens considers it important to incorporate social themes in her photography. Since little changes in our current society with regard to environmental, climate and gender issues, it is important that artists continue to shed light on these themes. After all, art is the most intimate expression of the individual and its environment. It tells what is going on in a society. However, care must be taken not to side with politics or the ruling class, but to always follow a critical path of its own.

03.Curriculum Vitae

C.V.

Claire Dekens Born in Hasselt, 1966 Lives and works in Zonhoven, BE Mail: info@clairedekens.be Mobile: 0032 468 29 65 79 Website: www.clairedekensphotography.com Instagram: clairedekensphotography LinkedIn: clairedekensfotografie

Education2017-2020 Bachelor Photography - LUCA School of Arts (Genk) 2012-2017 Photography–SASK (Hasselt)

Residentions2020 Bookmaking - Teun van der Heijden 2020 Virtual Vanity - Sarah & Charles 2019 Visual storytelling. Dissecting methodologies - Jan Rosseel 2018 Bas Losekoot 2016 DOP - Nicolas Karakatsanis and Nils Valkenborgh 2014 Une seance avec... - Jerome Bonet

Expositions2019 Lens op de mens – Overpelt 2019 #FotoCosaBa 6° edición – Madrid 2014 Arles - Nice to meet you - Part of the workshop with Jerome Bonet Awards2019 Siena International Photo Awards 2019 - Shortlist 2019 #FotoCosaBa 6°edición – Madrid - Shortlist 2019 Lens op de mens - Overpelt - Shortlist 2019 35 Awards 5th - 2nd stage

Lectures2019 BREEDBEELD in conversation

04.SelectedWorks

Drowning in Plastic

There ‘s a lot of plastic out there. And it ‘s found in places where it shouldn’t be found.

Plastic might not seem that scary. We use it in our everyday life. But… plastic pollution is steadily growing. It’s taking over our planet. It ‘s in our water, clothes, fish, food, …. We’re doomed to live with yesterday’s plastic and we are worsening the situation with each day of unchanged behaviour. Slowly we drown in plastic. Plastic should be recognized as an emerging human health issue. Human exposure can occur through consumption of contaminated food, water and air. It is found in our blood and our tissue. Toxic ingredients can avaporate into the air and be breathed in. They can readily absorb into the skin. There are a lot of reasons why plastic is a danger to human health. We could write a book about it. But then you might not read it. That’s why we’ll keep it short: Watch out humans, it’s time to take out the trash!

Disused

We all leave a trail of plastic waste. This trail does not only consist of small elements of microplastics.

It is also a trace we leave behind from our personal daily activities. We put the remains of these operations in a plastic bag and give it to the garbage truck or we leave it in the recycling park while it is something very personal. One should not steal someone else’s garbage for that reason either. For this project the plastic waste was asked from an unknown family to build still lifes based on it. A kind of reconstruction of the moments when the waste was created.

In Search For Nature

This work is a search for the way in which women would deal with nature in the future. According to Timothy

Morton’s Dark Ecology, a woman becomes part of nature when she works outside. A woman becomes part of the field, she somehow loses her margin. Françoise d’Eaubonne (French feminist, introduced the term Ecofeminism) also talks about the bond between women and nature. If women were in charge, overpopulation, pollution and other destructive influences on our environment would not have come this far. If we look at the current state of our planet, it seems that not much nature will remain. Women will therefore have to look for artificial ways to bring nature into their lives.

Lost Rituals

There are a lot of table rituals. Pouring the wine, the first tasting. The nice arrangement of the food on your plate.

Those are rituals that make the food tastier. We elevate food to a cultural experience. However, somewhere down the road, we have replaced these meal rituals with fast food. Food to satisfy hunger. The same applies to sexuality. The whole game of seduction and being seduced, it’s full of forms and rituals. Eliminate them and you end up having consumer sex. But sexuality is more than having an orgasm. Just as eating is more than appeasing hunger.

© Claire Dekens - 2020