Luminous Forms:
Abstractions in Color Photography
Olivia Parker, Untitled, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2001, ink jet print, 22" x 33 ¼", Lent by the Artist; Courtesy Robert Klein Gallery
James and Audrey Foster Galleries, Fourth Floor Hallway Gallery
September 18, 2004 – January 2, 2005
Opening Reception: Friday, September 17, 2004, 7 – 9 pm
In conjunction with the ParkeHarrison exhibition, Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo has organized two additional photography exhibitions that focus on abstraction as a theme. The photographs in Luminous Forms— whether created for the camera by the artist, or abstracted from objects or places in the natural world—emphasize color, form, and light as subjects unto themselves. The six photographers selected for this exhibition explore different forms of abstraction, from pulsing mandala shapes to images of pure color created by gels.
Lafo has also selected more than 30 works by 10 artists from the Museum’s growing Permanent Collection for the exhibition Abstract Photography in the Permanent Collection.
David Akiba – Akiba's two series, "Light Struck" and "Light Swept," explore light as it resonates between the photographed object and the camera. Using colored gels and plastic that is folded to create texture, the camera captures the sunlight reflecting off the object. The intense colors and active surface is a record of the interaction between the object and light, resulting in vibrant images that imply movement.
William Armstrong – In "The Infinity Series," we see bright colors mingling and melting into each other to create out-of-focus figurative forms. With the camera's focusing ring set on "infinity," Armstrong photographs small paper collages, allowing the subject of his work to be at once color and perception. What we are left with is rich color and a mysterious, suggestive image that requires the abandonment of the rational desire to fully understand the subject matter in favor of a more emotional connection to color and shape.
Sandi Haber Fifield – This artist creates abstractions in multi-panel format, linking rotated images across a slight gap that yield patterns of line, shape, and light. The images are produced with a digital camera, and the color is altered to heighten the abstracted nature of each piece.
Olivia Parker – In her series "Luminous Places," Olivia Parker blurs the photographic image in an attempt to capture the color that light allows us to see, rather than physical objects. Her photographs show us something about a space that the eye alone would not necessarily understand. A highly personalized interior is rendered as areas of fluid light, where color grabs your attention and becomes a reliquary holding jewel-like orbs of colored light.
Bonnie Porter – Porter's images reduce photography to its most basic elements, the interaction of light with a negative, and later with light-sensitive paper. These methods have traditionally been used to record "reality," visually freezing events in a documentary fashion. The subject matter in Porter's work becomes reduced to its core elements: light, color, depth, and shadow.
Laura Wulf – Images that combine flat areas of color, geometric form, and incised line are created without the camera. Color photographic paper is exposed to filters in an enlarger, and is worked further in the darkroom. Areas of color are achieved through masking and being exposed to different filters. Though considered photographs, Wulf's images thwart the basic tenets of photography in a number of ways. They are created without the aid of a camera, truly recording light only as the result of a chemical process.
Programs
Meet the Artists
Third Floor Lobby, Saturdays at 3 pm
The act of creating artwork can be just as exciting as looking at the final product. Meet New England and regional artists to discuss their work on view at DeCordova in the current exhibitions.
| Olivia Parker | September 18 |
| David Akiba | October 23 |
| Sandi Haber Fifield | December 4 |
