Sint Lucas Masters 2023-2024
to (be) long

to (be) long

Zina Kenens

Autonomous Context  2023-2024

Love is not just an emotion, but a subject of profound exploration, revealing the depths of human longing and connection.

Something that has always fascinated me and that I have longed for, for years, is love. What is love? Where do you find it? Is it normal to feel unloved? These questions made me delve deeper into the subject this year, it has become an intimate quest, explored through image. I grew up with low self-esteem, and when I got older I had trouble giving love to myself because I simply didn't understand the concept of loving oneself. Loving others, making other people feel loved and seen, THAT is something I know how to do and something that I love to do. But where was that person when I needed her? Why couldn’t I show up for myself? Through visual exploration, using photography and image, I am now searching for the smallest particles that could contain love, and that can be anything. My work captures the many forms of love and feeling, from romantic love to love for family and friends and so much more. Through my art, I want to inspire and make people aware of the different ways love affects our lives. Through my art, I want to contribute some warmth, however small it is, to a society which values our online presence more than our physical or our spiritual presence. My goal is to have a positive impact on how people experience and value love.