Jason Bard Yarmosky, is a young artist starting to make waves. Living and working in Brooklyn New York currently. Yarmosky finished his Bachelor in Fine Arts, 2010 at the School of Visual Arts, New York, given the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant in 2011. He is now making his name throughout the artist community with his exhibition Elder Kinder.
image: thecuriousbrain.com
image : lostateminor.com
This Exhibition depicts old people dressed in super hero clothing or accessories reminiscent of youth. This is a juxta-position between the young and old, exploring the notions of youth versus aging. The freedom pertaining to youth and the boundaries or limits imposed upon us as we age.The use of super hero suites and bunny ears (and other accessories) play on this idea of limitation and to an extent remove these boundaries.
image: thecuriousbrain.com
image : lostateminor.com
“As a child you learn to walk; later in life you learn to un-walk literally and metaphorically. The dreams of the young often submitted by the years never really disappear.” jasonyarmosky.com
There is a sense of vulnerability and humiliation prevalent, an almost childlike demenaour is evoked by these portraits. Through age and wisdom the elderly have come to accept their ‘fate’; as aging and ‘regression’ is imminent but there is a lighter more frivolous aspect to this. The two points of view one can take on Yarmosky’s work is either to be optimistic or pessimistic.
image: thecuriousbrain.com
image : lostateminor.com
The optimist sees the playfulness and emancipation from all the prescribed norms expected from old people, and the pessimist sees it as embarrassing, against the back drop of socially acceptable conventions. Whichever way you want to see it, remember you are as old as you feel and as Chili Davis said; “Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.”
Words : Bianca Budricks
Sources: lostateminor.com, jasonyarmosky.com, thecuriousbrain.com
Images: lostateminor.com, thecuriousbrain.com
