OTOMYS: How do you understand the concept of Becoming in relation to your artistic practice?
Simone Boon: A central theme in my photographic work is the exploration of human identity from a female perspective, which transcends cultural and personal boundaries within a philosophical framework of becoming. I first encountered this concept of becoming in the book ‘The Phenomenal Woman’ by Christine Battersby, particularly in the chapters on Henri Bergson and Sõren Kierkegaard. Henri Bergson’s idea that ‘transition is the only form possible’ has influenced my experimental approach to photography. I wanted to visualise and document, forms of transition. The question of how to capture the transformation from past to present to future in one photo was a challenge, and still is. I endeavour to capture many moments in time, in one still image. Movement and flow are the opposite of a still image that is frozen in time. Such a shot is often called a memento mori, the present moment instantly becomes a moment of the past tense. My work suggests that life continuous, it is as an ongoing cycle of the past, present and future. The concept of Becoming includes a sense of freedom. The subject is not held in the past. To be able to develop ways of visualising this concept within photography is most exciting.
OTOMYS: How does your vision of the future shape your relationship to the present and vice versa?
Simone Boon: Hope is a very important to my vision of the future. However when hope is based on a utopia without any link to reality, it doesn’t make much sense to me. We take part in the energy force of life that continuously drives us and forces us to live for the unknown moment that is yet to come. And before we know it, we are already in that next moment, where the future has become the present. For me present and future are very much interlinked in a process of becoming.
The quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet ‘To be or not to be’ I would rather change and say, ‘To become or not to become’. This refers to a personal evolution, where social and hierarchical relationships influence the forming of our identity in a forever changing process. For me this process is embedded with hope. Which is the motivation to live our vision of the future. A process of becoming, means chances for enhancement, reshaping and growth - personally, socially, politically and geographically. What happens now will have its effects on the future, which means responsibility. It is not an option to not think about a next, since before we know it, we are already in the next moment. The present and future are intertwined - while forming the future, we are already writing the past.
OTOMYS: Change and growth are central themes in each of your artistic practices, what keeps you returning to this concept?
Simone Boon: Change is very fascinating and I often return to this concept. The continuous transformation of each life particle challenges me to explore this idea with the camera. My photographic experiments develop into new ideas and processes. Every time there are new creative aspects to the process and the exploration of new ideas. A shoot is very much like theatre, like a performance. Setting up on a stage, I dress my models with colours and shapes, by using materials. It is as if I paint and draw with their body movements and lighting, together with the camera’s aperture and shutter speed settings. This is a highly complex process and very intriguing because the results are always new and different.
OTOMYS: Your use of layering creates artworks that are situated in the future, but very much tethered to past and present. How do you harness the medium of photography to create stories about transformation?
Simone Boon: It originally felt unnatural to capture transformations of the past, present and future in one photograph. The camera freezes a moment in time and holds onto that split second when the photograph has been taken. A photograph celebrates, or documents a memory. One can blur with filters or capture speed, yet it remains a still photograph. Therefor it was a great challenge when the idea emerged to visualise transformations in time that would include the before and after. It was as though I wanted to achieve a recording instead of a snapshot, which seemed to be rather related to film than to photography. The layering in my work is formed by movement in time. This was seen in my earlier work, and now within my photographs of subjects thoughtfully draped in colourful fabrics. In the draping there are many layers, and with the settings of the camera, tuned with the lighting and movement of the subject, other layers are added. Layers of the before, the now and the after overlap with one anther.
OTOMYS: What are you intending to evoke through the artworks you have created for Becoming?
Simone Boon: In the media and fashion industry, people are often photographed at a young and handsome age. Imbedded in our culture is the quest for beauty and an obsession for youth. Specially for the female, where this has been stressed throughout the ages. One will often find a beautiful young maiden with a wise old man on a painting and not the other way around. When I discovered that in traditional Western philosophies identity was a construct of the male perspective, I was to say at least very surprised. My readings led me to the philosophers Henry Bergson and Søren Kierkegaard, who offered different perspectives on human identity. Kierkegaard viewed women connected to the temporal world of change and becoming, while Bergson's concept of creative evolution emphasised the fluidity of forms and the continual change of reality. These thoughts where life and our identities do not stand still, are not self contained, do give a female perspective, and are inclusive. This is what I want to visualise. Through my photographs I want to accentuate another essence of beauty. My aim is to create transient images, that take along layers of life and layers of identity in a process of becoming and include a sense of freedom.
February 12, 2024
