Lesbian Portraits

These small portraits are an ongoing series of an inclusive lesbian representation in paintings with both real persons and imagined faces. The paintings are made to visualise the diversity of a lesbian identity, they are the endless possibilities of who identifies as lesbian. By choosing to paint only the face and not the background or clothes the portraits are atemporal and could represent people from all times and diverse cultures. The series is by no means an atlas of people, rather I ask myself what might be a lesbian face, and the ongoingness in the portrait series is a never ending answer on this question. In reality there is no way to know if a person is lesbian only by the face, an neither to know if they are heterosexual. But the acceptance of multiple realities matters. These portraits are about a lesbian identity including cis, neutral and trans persons.

B.R.A.V.E. Art space with curator Leïla Bounoua and colleague Luna during Lesbien·x·nes.

 

Part of the series has been in the group exhibition Lesbien·x·nes at B.R.A.V.E. Art Space in Brussels from 24 March 2022 till 30 april 2022. All portraits listed below are 30x20cm oil on canvas, made in 2021 - 2022.

The Lesbian Gaze

Series of 10 oil paintings, 50x30cm, 2020

 

The portraits are deliberately not finished, the canvas is visible and the face is not complete. A lesbian identity can only be recognised when it is acknowledged, you only see what you know. Especially women who grow up with too little lesbian representation see themselves through the gaze of a cis-male, heterosexual society and environment. This creates voids in the recognition of who they are. These voids are reflected in the white canvas that is visible in the portraits.

 

These paintings were shown during the event of  'Intersectional Writing' at Kartonnen Dozen, the ever inspiring LGBTQI+ bookshop in Antwerp. While the subject of the paintings is the lesbian identity, it is important to stress that 'lesbian' is as inclusive as possible and the portraits difference in class and ethnicity. The lesbian shown here as portrait nr 7 is a trans woman and painted specifically as someone who did discover a lot about who she is, while in reality the representation for trans people is still to be improved.

 

 

Downtown Borgerhout

The group exhibition Downtown Borgerhout took place from 2 October till 26 October in 't Werkhuys in Antwerp. The participating artists are: Yoko Enoki, Oona Vanderleenen, Faryda Moumouh, Kato Six, Koyuki Kazahaya, Chiara Monteverde and me, Eline De Clercq. You can read more about the exhibition here, or have a look at the exhibition in the photos. In the last photo you can see the addition of the Art Club Borgerhout, including the launch of a local youth centre for visual arts.

Downtown Borgerhout is the second part of a three-part series Downtown Hoboken, Downtown Borgerhout and Downtown Kiel. The series kicked off with an 'open call' in the Permeke Library where visitors were allowed to pose for a portrait in order to give 'the public' a different face. The work 'Downtown Hoboken' emerged from this and is a series of 53 portraits, which show the face of the visitors. Under the same name, the exhibition opened last year where this work was shown for the first time. During the exhibition there were lectures on literature, there were poetry readings and 'spoken word' to make it a participatory event.

 

This year I invited seven artists from Tokyo, Brussels and Antwerp; we created the exhibition Downtown Borgerhout, each showing our individual work. We shifted the center of Antwerp from the old part of town to the periphery. Ways of participation were again sought by establishing the Art Club Borgerhout in collaboration with Fameus and Culture Network Borgerhout, and under the roof of 't Werkhuys. The Art Club Borgerhout adds a piece of the identity of Borgerhout to the exhibition, and will continue to work on a connection between young people and visual arts during the month of October.

 

During this exhibition, free workshops invited the public to join in the creative process. The workshops are taught by the artists and let visitors involve in this exhibition. Because this exhibition was co-formed during the lockdown, a participatory approach was chosen whereby young people are invited to take part in visual arts and the artists receive proper remuneration for the work they do. More diversity in the arts and a fair payment for the artists are the basis for this project.

 

The workshops were given by Zahra Eljadid, Nyiragasigwa Hens, Tramaine de Senna, Chiara Monteverde, Kato Six, Katrin Kamrau and Koyuki Kazahaya.

photo credit © Eline De Clercq