Stacie Amelia. Copyright, All rights reserved 2006-2020 ©

Here is a collection of work from my Growing Older exhibition October 2015.

The exhibition was held at The Stove in Dumfries, Scotland and was supported /promoted by Luminate Scotland as part of their Creative Ageing Festival. The work was brought together through consultation with community in its many senses – locally, nationally and worldwide.

The work engaged 250 people locally, 5,493 people directly on Facebook and 363 through the growing older live instillation Facebook account (now closed) all contributing as part of the live exhibition.

Artworks shown were influenced through consultation with 130 participants worldwide 2013-14.

Collective Themes

Throughout the consultation there was consensus on particular stages of growth.

Please click on each image for individual more information.

  • A Whole World In Our Arms

Memories & Anxieties

This photographic and digital work is capturing the movement of emotion; what has passed and is in the process of anticipating what is to come.
Earlier memories (top row) depict the movement of growing older, themes of self through time, sibling/ friend interaction, career and love or life’s suffering.
Anxieties about the future as one grows into the later stage of life, this includes fear of becoming confused, lost, cold, isolated and unable to look after ourselves due to decreasing capacity and finances, the eternal sense of being stuck, waiting, memories of self identity but in the here and now not having direction or purpose anymore. Then eventually fear of death and what will become of our physical self.

  • New Life
  • Sibling Life
  • Sadness
  • Sense Of Development, Teen, Youth
  • Wondering Where This Will All Lead
  • Experiences of Love
  • Broken
  • Anxieties About Memory Loss
  • Anxieties Of Not Being Able To Meet Ones Needs
  • Deteriorating Health
  • Death
  • Letting Go Of This life

Physical Changes

The physical differences as we grow, evidence of change as a result of time, how our body develops as we age and how function becomes affected. Regardless how one feels the body follows its original intention and deterioration begins, everything changes nothing remains the still.

  • Baby
  • Entirely Dependent
  • Growth Through Time
  • Youth
  • Skin Changes
  • Hair and Hearing Changes
  • Before
  • After

Grief

As we grow older our hearts grapple with the reality of impermanence and this can cause us great shock and disturbance when we realise that things do not stay the same forever. The interpretation of “Hapily Ever After” is taken from all things fairytale and Disney. This is not how our lives or world pans out. This piece represents the loss of part of who we are in the midst of grief. The loss of the ones we call our one, of family members, close friends and significant others in our lives. It represents the difficulty in grasping or holding on to our sense of identity whilst experiencing existential loneliness.

Existential Moments of Loss
1.5m x 0.5m Acrylic on Canvas When Life Doesn’t Turn Out As HopedDisillusionment1m x 1m Acrylic on Canvas (SOLD)

Personality

The following are an exploration of how we have a sense of who we are in our youth and who we could or do become as we age. This particular set had me wondering is personality innate? How does it form? What is it exactly? How do we identify it and how (if so) does it change? What is this sense of ‘self’?

  • Now
  • Perception Of A Future Self 1
  • Perception Of A Future Self 2
  • Perception Of A Future Self 3
  • Now 2
  • Perception Of A Future Self 4

A small selection of the adapted selfies that were submitted for this exhibition