— Growth Record #3 | June 6, 2016
Lisa Spilliaert

> more about Lisa Spilliaert

Growth Record #3 is part of an ongoing conceptual series that traces the evolution of a child from infancy to adulthood through the mediums of photography and video.

In Growth Record #1, Spilliaert introduced a voiceover, candidly revealing the impetus for the project. She starkly recounts her intimate relationship with a Japanese man who became a father approximately nine months later. Reflecting on the circumstances, Spilliaert contemplates the parallel possibility of her own pregnancy, thus considering the alternate role of motherhood.

​

This series seems to explore not only the development of the newborn but also a subtle self-portrait of the artist herself, whose aging process is implicitly woven into the narrative. The viewer is invited into the complex space Spilliaert inhabits in the child's life, where she oscillates between the roles of intruder and observer. Despite her personal connection, she approaches the project with the detachment of a professional, treating the act of documentation as a formal, almost ritualistic, practice. This deliberate formality transcends the autobiographical, transforming the work into a reflection on the nature of observation and the passage of time.

​​​

​​

• Growth Record #1 (2014-15, colour, stereo, 16:9, 8'45")

• Growth Record #2 (2015-16, colour, stereo, 16:9, 9'25")

• Growth Record #3 (2016, colour, stereo, 16;9, 6'30")

• Growth Record #4 (2017, colour, stereo, 16:9, 9'09")

• Growth Record #5 (2022, colour, stereo, 16:9, 9'14")

Screened at:

• Be-Part Waregem (BE) 2014

• Beursschouwburg, Brussels (BE) 2015

• Het Bos, Antwerp (BE) 2016

• LLS 387, Antwerp (BE) 2016

• National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka (JP) 2016

• Beursschouwburg, Brussels (BE) 2017

• Derde Triënnale Hedendaagse Kunst van Psychiatrische Ziekenhuis Duffel, Duffel (BE) 2018

• De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL) 2022

​​