Performing Adulthood
What does growing up mean for Generation Z, and how do young people portray themselves? Performing Adulthood is a photography and video project by Robin Alysha Clemens about young people between the ages of 16 and 24. They are in a stage that revolves around forming their own identity and dealing with more responsibilities and independence. Part of the commission cycle Imagining Science, a collaboration with the State University of Groningen, in which different research fields serve as inspiration for an autonomous art project. Robin Alysha Clemens is the fourth photographer that was given such a commission.
Performing Adulthood is about looking and being seen, about hiding and revealing. About presenting yourself, and how this sometimes fails.
This project provides a glimpse into the world of generation Z. It prompts us to think about the self-image of young people, for whom the presence of cameras has become a matter of course. Performing Adulthood shows the abrasive, inquisitive and sometimes uncomfortable moments that shape our perception of adulthood, representation and identity.
In Performing Adulthood, Robin Alysha Clemens reverses the roles of photographer and model. She invited young people to portray themselves in the studio, and then allowed the model-photographers to select and curate their own photos. The project, however, not only shows the end product of this ‘performance’, but also the process that precedes it. The visitor of the exhibition therefore also becomes an observer of the moments that are not posed, moments when the performance fails and a photograph ends up in the trash can.
In addition to these self-portraits, there are six scenes in which different groups of friends talk to each other about subjects such as online dating, friendship, death, climate change, loneliness, careers, housing shortage and social media. By observing these interactions, an intimate image is created of how these young people present themselves. Not just to a spectator in a gallery or a photographer with a camera, but particularly to each other.
In a world where visual representations are more important than ever, Performing Adulthood poses the question: what do we show and what would we rather keep hidden? How do others see us and how much control do we actually have over it?
This project arose from a collaboration with the University of Groningen and Noorderlicht. In the series ‘Imagining Science’, a photographer is commissioned each year to depict a field of scientific research in relation to a Noorderlicht theme. This edition’s theme was Generation Z.
The work was in part made possible by the Mondriaan Fund.