Growing old and dying are subjects most of us regard with variable levels of dread, when we are forced to think about them at all. But one of the best things about art is the way it helps us confront even the most vexing issues. The Griffin Museum of Photography is exhibiting the work of four artists who have grappled with mortality and created diverse, empathetic and paradoxically uplifting images. Isa Leshko’s “Allowed to Grow Old”, Susan Rosenberg Jones’ “Widow/er”, Arianne Clément’s “100 Years, Age of Beauty” and Virgil DiBiase’s “My Husband Won’t Tell Me His First Name” will be on view through December 6th, 2019. There will be an artist talk and book signing with Isa Leshko at the Griffin Museum on November 21, 2019 from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM.
ABE, ALPINE GOAT, AGE 21
© Isa Leshko
Archival Pigment Print, 2011
Courtesy of the Artist and the University of Chicago Press from “Allowed To Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Animals from Farm Sanctuaries” published in May by the University of Chicago Press.
Anyone who has ever shared a home with an animal knows they have much to teach us about old age and dying. And so it was that, after caring for her mother with Alzheimer’s disease, Isa Leshko turned to the animal kingdom for help in facing her own mortality. Allowed to Grow Old is a meditation on the inevitability of death coupled with sanctity of life, told through sensitive portraits of rescued farm animals growing old in sanctuaries.
VIOLET, POTBELLIED PIG, AGE 12, I
© Isa Leshko
Archival Pigment Print, 2011
Courtesy of the Artist and the University of Chicago Press from “Allowed To Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Animals from Farm Sanctuaries” published in May by the University of Chicago Press.
While understanding that each animal has a personality, Leshko nonetheless manages to avoid the pitfall of attempting to humanize them. Instead, she has drawn incisive analogies. She approaches her subjects at eye-level, considerate of their spatial boundaries while mindful of visual spatial relationships. The magnificence of their physical presence is realized through Leshko’s exquisite, intimate prints whose contrast confers dimensionality and whose broad tonal range renders fur and feathers with lush texture and sensuality. A serene peacefulness emanates from Leshko’s images, evoking a sense of gratitude and empathy, which the artist admittedly hopes will be the first step toward activism.
VALENTINO, HOLSTEIN COW, AGE 19
© Isa Leshko
Archival Pigment Print, 2013
Courtesy of the Artist and the University of Chicago Press from “Allowed To Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Animals from Farm Sanctuaries” published in May by the University of Chicago Press.
“Marie-Berthe Paquette, 102 years old, Montreal, 2016” by Arianne Clément (courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography).
Arianne Clément’s “100 Years, Age of Beauty” features larger than life, high contrast B&W images of women centenarians and the ephemera of their beauty regimens. As extreme in their emotional tone as they are in print contrast, the mood in Clément’s images range from the irrepressible Marie-Berthe Paquette hamming it up in party clothes to a doting daughter applying lipstick to her no longer verbal mother. Accompanying quotes regarding the subject’s attitudes on aging and beauty offer a further disparity with the prevailing societal obsession with youth. The contrasts in emotion are echoed in Clément’s rendering of deeply etched wrinkles in the women’s skin, a deliberate alignment of method with message: old age is full of extremes.
“1000 Pieces” by Virgil DiBiase (courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography).
Also working in B&W, Virgil DiBiase’s “My Husband Won’t Tell Me His First Name” features psychologically layered photographs about dementia, at once startling and gentle. Originally conceived as a way to better understand and relate to patients in his Neurology practice, DiBiase’s home-based portraits (with illuminating quotations) have expanded to include metaphorical illusions and images of perceptions. From a woman struggling before a 1000-piece puzzle to an individual obscured by a veil of snow, DiBiase’s imagery is both delicately wrought and profoundly symbolic.
“When you look at me and question me, I go blind. Ruth” by Virgil DiBiase (courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography).
“Lori, 2018” from the series Widow/er by Susan Rosenberg Jones (courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography).
Susan Rosenberg Jones’ penetrating “Widow/er” explores the feelings of people whose partners have died. Her tranquilly composed color portraits physically place her sitters in homes or gardens relating to their stories. Conversely, her titles state how long the couple was together and the amount of time since one partner passed away, placing them along an emotional spectrum. Her portraits and accompanying texts are soulful without being pitying, putting a face on the isolation often experienced by survivors. And while there are numerous crossed arms (and even a defiant hand on the hip) expressing a symbolic defense against loneliness, Rosenberg Jones’ empathetic portraits are a nuanced blend of resilience, vulnerability and longing. Having travelled this road herself, Rosenberg Jones elegantly depicts that profound difference between sorrow and depression, sharing moving and ultimately buoyant tales of life’s unanticipated journeys.
“Darrell, 2018” from the series Widow/er by Susan Rosenberg Jones (courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography).
For more information about this exhibit and associated programming, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/exhibitions/
Feature Image: “Marie-Berthe Paquette, 102 years old, Montreal, 2016” by Arianne Clément (courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography).
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