With the exhibition Maybe what's repeated doesn't look the same by Arian Christiaens, Gris opens its doors.

Vernissage, in the presence of the artist, on Thursday 9 May, 7pm.

What do photographs tell us about the people we love, about the people we relate to? What do photographs tell us about ourselves, and about how we relate to others? These are the questions Christiaens asks herself, creating a personal and intimate narrative about family and relationships. Oftentimes central to this, is Christiaens herself; either visibly or not.

In In Camera, Arian Christiaens explores ideas about photographic and family gaze and recontextualises an archive of family photos and the photographic genre. In this layered work family, photographic and gender-related narratives overlap with material ideas about the photographic image.

In addition to previously shown images, Gris also showcases new works. These include 3362 lines of black, the weaving work Christiaens made with her mother. With these 'slow' ways of working, she allows for chance, time and fragility.

The project that Christiaens started with her son Conan - and will further explore in residency at Gris Gallery - marks a slight shift in her work, increasingly handing off the making process and working very intuitively. Together with her son, Christiaens explores the dynamics between maker and subject, between authorship and letting go of it, and how the 'gaze' and interpretation are affected in (portrait) photography. She establishes a physical and mental frame within which a reflection arises on the construction of identities, relationships, and the medium an sich. Photography initially stands between Arian as photographer and Conan as model, but soon shifts take place here and traces of an experimental investigation emerge.