“In Tenderbeing, Ariadna Dane charts a profound inward turn... Tenderbeing feels like a slow, courageous excavation of the self.”
TENDERBEING
Tenderbeing began as a shift from operating through the logic of nature to embodying it as a metaphor for the human condition. I reflected on the defining moments in my life - motherhood, grief, letting go - and instead of trying to depict them directly, I imagined them as plants. This was the way of speaking about something vulnerable, in a way that felt precise and honest. I wrestled with each one of these works. Some of them kept me up at night, because they came from places I hadn’t spoken from before.
Each work is an emotional portrait, accompanied by a brief text that approaches the subject from a different angle. The work is monochrome, focused, and includes a cutout: a deliberate absence, a shape that once held something, or where meaning lives subtly. The forms are close and sometimes even cropped - like a memory recalled not as a scene, but as a feeling. Plants became a way to speak about being a human without defending, justifying or explaining.
My interview with Rise Art delves into Tenderbeing, exploring the process and themes woven through the series: Interview with Rise Art.
