DESCRIPTION
When someone close to me contemplated ending their life, I began to assess my relationship with death. Through those explorations, both personal and in research of other cultures, I recognized my lifelong fascination with the beauty of mortality.
How can we create a culture around grief that is vulnerable yet brave? That question played in my mind as I created these images, each an exploration into how we grieve and how we view our own mortality. Sculptural, grotesque, figurative, and conceptual, this body of work look at death from all angles.
Samsara creates a rich, uncomfortable, and open space to dissect how we internalize grief, and how other cultures practice rituals surrounding death.
Importantly, it brings a closeness to mortality that allows us to examine our own ephemerality. Many images came from inspirations around the world during research of how grief manifests based on culture, location, and spiritual beliefs. From a glass hearse in India to sky burials in Tibet, remnants of diverse inspiration can be found in the pieces.
Samsara features 29 framed original mixed media works (photograph, acrylic, sand, dirt, hair).
AUTHOR
SELECTED AWARDS
ND Photographer of the Year, 2016
Shutter Magazine's Top 10 Most Influential Photographers, March 2014
Project Imagination Winner, 2011/2012
30 Under 30 Women Photographers, January 2010
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Spillman Blackwell Fine Art, Jan 2022
JoAnne Artman Gallery, NYC + Laguna Beach, Jan 2017, Jan 2019, Oct 2021
Soren Christiansen Gallery, PhotoNOLA, February 2014
Morren Galleries, Amsterdam, May 2013
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Affordable Art Fair NY, NYC, March 2015
PhotoLA Art Fair, Los Angeles, January 2014
Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, December 2011
Pacific Art Foundation - Private Museum Showing, Southern California, October 2011
BIOGRAPHY
Brooke Shaden was born in March of 1987 in Lancaster, PA, USA and graduated college from Temple University with degrees in filmmaking and English. She began creating self-portraits for ease and to have full control over the images, and has since grown into a self-portrait fine art photographer. Brooke works to capture fantastic realities within her photographic frame. By using painterly techniques as well as the square format, traditional photographic properties are replaced by otherworldly elements.
More awards/exhibitions: http://brookeshaden.com/cv/
