MUSÉE 29 – EVOLUTION

Evolution explores the concepts of progress, transformation, growth, and advancement in an age when images are taking a dramatic shift in the role they play in our lives.

Exhibition Review: Cig Harvey, Eat Flowers

Exhibition Review: Cig Harvey, Eat Flowers

Cig Harvey, Emerald Coat with Dahlia Petals, 2019, Signed, titled, dated and editioned verso, 40 x 30 inch archival pigment print, Edition of 7, All images copyright the artist and courtesy of Jackson Fine Art

Cig Harvey, Emerald Coat with Dahlia Petals, 2019, Signed, titled, dated and editioned verso, 40 x 30 inch archival pigment print, Edition of 7, All images copyright the artist and courtesy of Jackson Fine Art

By Andy Dion

Pacing through Cig Harvey’s latest exhibition at Jackson Fine Arts, one may notice that, between colorful images of flowers, there are aphorisms of consumption and hunger. Eat Flowers examines beauty in relation to desire, ownership, and craving through a series of striking photographs and prints, both visual and readable.

There is an inherent moodiness to Eat Flowers, brought on by its emphasis on the cerulean. Several walls throughout the exhibition are highlighted with eye catching turquoise that interacts with the deep blues of Harvey’s recent work. Printed in indigo on white are curious poems, one of which reads, “The deer/stand under/the frozen/apple tree/and crunch their/pavlovas a la mode/in the moonlight.” Harvey creates an ominous, dusky mood with color and written words that make the exhibit feel like a mystery box staring back at the viewer. Like a noir film, the enigma present in the space commands engagement with the collection’s story and themes.

Cig Harvey, Black Velvet Petunias, 2020, Signed, titled, dated and editioned verso, 30 x 40 inch archival pigment print, Edition of 7, All images copyright the artist and courtesy of Jackson Fine Art

Cig Harvey, Black Velvet Petunias, 2020, Signed, titled, dated and editioned verso, 30 x 40 inch archival pigment print, Edition of 7, All images copyright the artist and courtesy of Jackson Fine Art

Although flowers are the prevailing subject in Eat Flowers, people sneak their way into shots and, once discoverable, seem to play a meaningful role in the work. In “Boltonia Asteroides, 2019,” a human figure clothed in an emerald windbreaker is barely visible amid a wall of the titular false asters. There is a theme of being among nature in photographs such as “The Lake, 2019” and “The Wind, Scout, Camden, Maine, 2018,” where a pale arm can be seen floating in a calm lake, separate from its body, presumed out of frame, and a young girl shields her face from the wind in the back seat of a car. Harvey refuses to grant the human visage space in Eat Flowers, so as to connote the primacy of natural elements over human presences.

Harvey’s cryptic letterpress messages drive home the air of incompleteness and hunger present in the exhibition. Many of the images display an otherworldly sensibility through dreamlike, faceless apparitions and a bucolic aura. “Angel Trumpets, 2020” exemplifies this unattainable natural beauty with bright yellow flowers before an impossibly blue background; it is the dream we wish we could keep bottled in a pocket. Threadbare yet hyper focused, much of Eat Flowers feels like snapshots of memory distorted by limited perception. The exhibition’s title, Eat Flowers, even emphasizes the futility of eating something we see. It implies a blind consumption if not only for the sake of ownership. But what in nature can we truly own if it belongs to the earth?


Photo Journal Monday: Jacob Pesci

Photo Journal Monday: Jacob Pesci

Art Out: Robert Polidori, Wendy Red Star, Mona Kuhn

Art Out: Robert Polidori, Wendy Red Star, Mona Kuhn