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Pink, Purple and Blue
05/10/2019

Pink, Purple and Blue

Color is the common thread connecting the research carried out by artists Silvia Bigi, Ulrike Königshofer and Marina Rosso showcased at the Pink, Purple and Blue exhibition. The subject itself, or a bridge to reflect upon issues connected to specific themes – from perception to memory to ethics – color is explored by the three artists through the lens and the aesthetic standards of the photographic medium.
The blue and purple hues in Florilegio (2019), by Marina Rosso, were artificially created through the genetic modification of three flower species: carnations, roses and chrysanthemums. These flowers, in such nuances, did not exist in nature until a number of biotechnology companies – urged by the high demand in floral rarities – were able to insert the gene of the color blue in the plants’ DNA. Highlighted by the artist though the aesthetic codes of still life and of ancient herbariums, the flowers raise questions on their own nature, inspiring mixed reactions from those who enthusiastically embrace the progress of genetic engineering and those who are opposed to this kind of experimentation for ethical reasons.
The works from the series On the Other Side of the Sky (2019) by Ulrike Königshofer are the result of the artist residency carried out by the artist last spring within the AiR Trieste program and realized with the support of Land Steiermark. The cliché of photographing sunsets is used here to underline the arbitrary visual perception of similar natural phenomena. The diptychs are, in fact, composed of images taken at the very same moment in two different places (Vienna and Trieste) with the camera oriented towards the same portion of the sky. Incorporated in the images, the place and time indications and the image coordinates are positioned in such a way to correspond to the localization of the two cities on a map. Such details prompt the viewer to reflect on the relativity of the image: the air doesn’t have a color per se, the tones we perceive, and that a photograph may record, only depend on the relationship between the sky, the sun and the viewer. As the artist says, “If you looked at it from above the atmosphere, the sky as we know it would simply disappear.” In the Sunset recordings (2016 - on going ) installation, color is the only information that remains in the representation of sunset, whose emotional and romantic power, in such a way, is weakened.
In The Color Theory (2019) Silvia Bigi places at the core of her research the role of color in the relationship between memory and photography. The starting point of her installation is the image that has portrayed the artist for the very first time in her life, from which she takes samples of the colors that are more meaningful to her in remembering the image. Some of these monochromatic samples are then printed through a chromogenic printing process based, however,on digital color codes and elevated to the status of family photographs through the choice of frame types generally used in private homes. The installation includes footage showing the artist busy scraping away color pigments from pictures selected from the family archives. The pigment powders are showcased in phials, stored to be preserved. The entire artwork seems to be guided by the intention to fix a process which is, actually, unpredictable, due both to the chromatic instability of the picture itself, and to the subjective perception of the colors’ memory on the part of each viewer.
Despite its colorful, lightweight title which hides, in fact, complex considerations and meaningful issues, the exhibition, deep down, seems like a warning to mistrust the superficial and captivating aspects of things.

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