Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns

Artista, MIA Fair 2023 @ Ira Stehmann Fine Art

Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns, L´Apesanteur #7, 2021

Courtesy: Ira Stehmann Fine Art

Photopolymer Etching, Chine-Collé on Kozo paper over cotton rag paper
Photopolymer Etching, Chine-Collé on Kozo paper over cotton rag paper
Dimensioni / Size: 42 x 28 cm | 16 1/2 x 11 in
Edizione / Edition: 7 + 2 APs

Contattare Ira Stehmann Fine Art per il prezzo.
Please contact Ira Stehmann Fine Art for the price.

Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns

Paesi Bassi @ The Netherlands

Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns (b. 1968 Heerlen, the Netherlands) is an Amsterdam-based visual artist. Educated at The Ballet Academy in Tilburg, Ariëns worked as a professional dancer, photo model, and assistant photographer. At the age of 30, she started her photographic career and since then has worked for international magazines such as Marie-Claire, Red and Crash Magazine, just to name a few.
Since 2017, Ariëns has been working on her personal projects. In doing so, it is important to her to be able to work free, at her own pace and independently. In her images, which are cinematically inspired, she conveys poetic grace, fragility and at the same time self-determination. Ariëns ́ dreamlike and sometimes melancholic fashion photographs have nothing to do with fashion photographs as we have stored them in our collective memory - namely as a reflection of glamour and shiny commodities or as photographs in documentary snapshot aesthetics. Instead, they appear as if removed from time and space.
The uniqueness of her imagery is enhanced by using photopolymer etching, an old printing technique. In this process, the motif is brought forth through a printing plate sensitized with photopolymer film by means of contact exposure. This process gives her the opportunity to act like a painter when doing the final prints leaving room for accidental elements where they are.
As poetic and dreamlike as her works appear, they are certainly on the track of a particular reality: a transient moment, the boundary between being and passing away, the irretrievable instant when in a gesture or silhouette, in a special incidence of light, an emotional aura and intensity appear. She invites us to experience soulful moments with her.
Ira Stehmann, Munich, 2022

Artist statement
Motion and stillness, capturing the transient, letting go of movement – apparent contradictions which go hand in hand so evidently to me.
Not the image, but rather the memory of it is what nurtures me.
The invisible turmoil of the soul.
Catching the intangible.
I work seemingly without a plan, without restrictions.
 The framework is set only by the technique: photography combined with traditional etching and printing.
 The devotion this craftsmanship requires of me leads to the velvety appearance.
Light is deeply meaningful in my work.
It could not exist but for the play between black and white, shades and nuances.
We want to capture, to keep. In fact, letting go is what brings out the most intimate images. “So the darkness shall be the light. And the stillness the dancing.” T.S. Elliott



Why Photopolymer Etching?
“I strongly felt the need to create with my own hands, something tangible into which i could put my soul. Therefore, I went in search of a craft technique that allowed me to do so. This search lead me to the photopolymer etching technic. I first transfer my image onto a solar plate, which results in a new negative. This new negative enables me to print in a traditional way. I love the structure, smell, countless shades of black and the handcrafting process. The dedication this craftsmanship requires of me, leads to the velvety appearance of my work.”