‘This interest in isolating parts of the body from their social and physiological context underpins everything he does: the nudes in Birthdays are stripped not only of their clothes, but of their names, ages, details, anything which might warp the appreciation of their naked forms’

Emma Brockes - The Guardian Tuesday May 25 1999

A birthday is traditionally held as being an annual celebration of the day of birth, yet its wider significance is as a symbol of the passing of another year.

Anthony-Noël Kelly’s Birthdays, an ongoing project now in its fourth year, is a large scale installation of 168 images recording the lifespan of the male and female human body. Each year - from birth to old age - is represented by a single image of both a naked male and female. Each person photographed represents just one year in the cycle, and is photographed in the year in which they attained their represented age. The individuals were selected solely on the basis of their age and photographed by natural light in their ‘natural’ state, free from material accoutrements. 

Central to these anonymous portraits is the notion that these individuals could belong to any particular period in history. The title and the images themselves suggest the passage of time and encourage the viewer to consider the development of nature. By not presenting the images in chronological order, the viewer is encouraged to consider the notion of an on-going life-cycle, continuing through successive generations, rather than the simple progression of age from birth through to death. Birthdays continues Kelly’s exploration of the literal representation of the body. The artist’s engagement with death is also an engagement with life: a concern with the interdependencies we experience biologically and emotionally, as well as the perception of personal identity within the inevitable cycle of living and dying. 

In the face of this stark presentation where all references to size, personality or social standing are stripped away and the huge scale forces the viewer to communicate as directly as possible with the subjects, each individual is encouraged to consider their own position and identity within this natural order. The attendant works, Birthdays Part III and IV, prompts further consideration of this ‘order’ with its study of dogs each representing a year of their own life span.

Birthdays inevitably raises questions about the unclothed human form, particularly addressing what is ‘nude’ and what is ‘naked’. The 168 pairs of eyes of the human participants portray a different kind of nakedness, perhaps baring the character which has been stripped from their naked bodies. By being watched so intently while contemplating Birthdays, the viewer may also sense his or her own ‘nakedness’. 

‘Voyeurism will be further undermined by displaying close-ups of the subjects eyes on the opposite wall, giving visitors the impression that they are both viewer and viewed... Birthdays at the 291 Gallery in Hackney, east London, is already causing a sensation.’

Mark Honigsbaum - The Observer Review 23 May 1999