Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns

Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns, Ode #7, 2023
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.
"I grew up with classical ballet and studied at the ballet academy, so my whole life was surrounded by ballet. But “my dream to dance in a company like the NYC ballet fell apart.”

I started to look for something that could replace my passion for ballet. This was the quest. For a period, I started working as a model, where I got inspired by photographers I worked with and started to assist some photographers.

I felt the need to create from within after my younger sister passed away. I had to let go of concepts or themes to find out where my journey would take me. Gradually, I realized how everything turned out to be personal, including my relationship with the models I work with. I like to create an intimate atmosphere for the models to make them feel comfortable and be themselves."

- Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns
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.

"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."

- Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns
Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns, L´Apesanteur #3, 2021
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 a few soulful moments with her. And so it comes as no surprise that Chantal Elisabeth Arïens gives herself plenty of time for her shoots and works in slow motion, waiting for the decisive moment.
Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns, Paperwork #1, 2020
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.

"I am also a print-maker. I felt the need to create with my own hands, to give my prints more depth. I went in search of a craft technique that would allow me to do so, and this led me to the photopolymer etching technique. I love the tactility, the structure, the scent, and countless shades of black. The work itself is very intense and slow; it brings me to a more quiet part of myself and makes me more aware of how gratifying craftsmanship can be." - Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns
Where Are You

So the darkness shall be the light. And the stillness the dancing. - T.S. Elliott

The words refer to my own process that started with the death of my younger sister. I went through deep grief, a depressing period, trying to find the light. This is why I started my series ‘Where Are You’ with specks of black and bright white. - Chantal Elisabeth Ariëns
2016-2017
UNFINISHED
2018
MONOLOGUE INTÉRIEUR
2020
PAPERWORK
2020
HEALING OR DROWNING
2020
L´APESANTEUR
2021 | Chanel Haute Couture Fall Winter 2021 / 2022, shot for Crash Magazine #94 under Art Direction of Kaduri Elyashar
FILLE ET GARÇONS
2022 | Multiple Couture Cover Story for Crash Magazine under the Art direction of Kaduri Elyashar, 2022
LA DEROBADE
2022 | Shoot for Carcy Magazine Fall Winter 2022 under the Art Direction of Kaduri Elyashar
ODE
2023 | Homage to Photographer Tom Kublin for Mirror Magazine, shot with couture by Olivier Theyskens, under the Creative Direction of Maria Kublin
REVERIE
2023 | Work in progress with couture by Olivier Theyskens and styling by Lune Kuipers

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