Ghislain Amar
11.07.2020
coming of age
Hi!
The exhibition is a take on ‘coming of age’ stories which usually refer to novels and movies that focus on the transition of a protagonist from youth to adulthood.
coming of age comprises a series of color and black and white gelatin silver prints I've made in a darkroom that I recently set up in my home and one ‘patchwork’ of inkjet prints of phone photographs taken while working and thinking about this exhibition. I’ve listened to a lot of folk and indie rock mostly from 20 years ago while doing this project, and re-watched the film Thumbsucker and a few other movies as well as the 1994 tv series ‘my so called life’. It’s when I listen to the Elliott Smith cover song of ‘Trouble’ that this show makes sense to me the most.
Index of the images:
7:28PM (27.05.2008)
I’ve met Rachel and her friend on the street in my then hometown and asked if i could photograph them. I asked Rachel to wear my hoodie for the pictures and she felt awkward. I think that’s why she was laughing then.
AA
I had a picture in my archive that i took in 2015. For years I would often bump into it and wondered what it was that i liked about it besides the blue toned thing. Until last year November, when i looked at it upside down discovering the two letters written on the shotgun shell.
As I had a friend following the 12 step program, i was thinking a lot at the time about how people join such programs with an idea to change their life completely. It’s about adaptation, acceptance and seeing new possibilities in one’s life. I like thinking about this possibility of change.
Bball
I made this one in April 2020 after two weeks of wanting to photograph stuff I’d put on fire. This was triggered by a friend of mine who burnt a wooden chair on his firepit one night when we were in his garden. I felt it was a really nihilistic gesture. It was at the beginning of the Corona lockdown.
Palm holder
I bought this device to make photographs with 10 years ago and I kept it in a box until this year. Two hands as alliance or fight.
Acne, my cousin’s checker shirt, the roses that I grow in my backyard
my friendships at this very precise moment
I made this collage tryin gather the people I feel close to in Rotterdam at the moment. Friendships are fluid and always change one way or another. I was curious to visualize it and intend to hang it in my apartment after this show.
collage 1 (after My So Called Life)
being close to the face of someone
Blu
Locked minds. Locked hearts
My roses and my firepit
the roses i grow and the fire i make
my so called life at 65
Sunrise
enjoy the ride (merci Sophie)
Thank u for comin’ x x x
Ghislain
List of works:
coming of age
11 inkjet and handmade silver-gelatin prints, corduroy, wool (framed)
2020
coming of age storyboard
Inkjet prints, tape, plastic foil
2020