Stages of Life

Raafat Ballan, Joep Van Liefland, Shaza Omran, Kevin Osepa, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe

The depiction of Stages of Life is a familiar subject in art history, like it has been and still is is in theology, medicine or psychology. It commonly specifies three up to twelve phases of life, from birth to death and sometimes even beyond. Traditionally these stages are mapped out in a chronological order of things, cyclic or linear. From today’s perspective however, we might be less impressed by the striking simplicity of this order. The irresistible image of designated ages passing by one after each other omits a much more impactful life experience: that of migration from one place to another. The chrono-logic of a lifespan is often, and profoundly, intersected by a spatial logic. This spatial intersection concerns migration for economical, political or educational reasons, which can be either voluntary or forced—the border between which is hardly definable. 

The exhibition Stages of Life seeks to concretize this intersection of the chronological and the spatial in various and sometimes oblique ways. The intersection is not, or not always, simply readable from the works on show but also concerns the artists’ personae. The genesis of this exhibition is embedded in the slippery fundaments of what defines art in a context of global exchange, colonial stratifications, diasporic culture, adaptation, and opportunism. Or to quote one of the artists in the exhibition, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe: “It might complicate the framework if your narrative is one of the statist viewpoint.”

Birth 
The lyrical paintings by Shaza Omran are based on the faces and media representations of children and sucklings that have been killed in war, her fellow humans. From the distance she now has to this situation, Omran empathizes with these victims by eternalizing them in art-historically informed, idealized stylizations.

Life
Raafat Ballan’s paintings are essentially transcending tensed domestic situations and political victims under the regime in Syria into stilled compositions with isolated figures. The exhibition also features a set of linocuts, a prelude to Ballan’s comprehensive narrative project entitled Society of Horror.

Death
In Exterminate all the Brutes, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe again addresses the long and cynical history of war, atrocities and destruction in Burma/Myanmar in the age of modernity and technological progress. Part of that complex is the genocide on Rohingya under the current leadership.

After Death
The monumental collages of Joep Van Liefland allude to the will, and various strategies of humankind, to overcome Death. The works present a fractured cosmological realm infused with fantasies about transcendence and redemption by technology, through a profane range of haul videos, corporate design, and discount advertising. 

Rebirth
In his video film Con los Santos no se Juega (You don’t play with the Saints) Kevin Osepa revisits childhood memories of seeming inscrutable spiritual rituals for cleansing and protection in Curacao. In his video he interprets and performs the brua in various ways, with a prominent role for bluing powder.

Stages of Life is conceived by Moving Matters Cultural Platform. This platform initiates projects and exhibitions on the cutting edge of visual art and migration. 

Stages of Life is curated by Jelle Bouwhuis.

Made possible with financial support of: KF Hein Fonds, Elise Mathilde Fonds, Carel Nengerman Fonds and Utrecht Municipality, and through the support of Galerie SANAA, Welkom in Utrecht and De Voorkamer.