© Cig Harvey

Landesinnung Wien der Berufsfotografie, Leica Gallery Vienna and Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo present:

Cig Harvey

Artist Talk at the Leica Gallery Vienna in der Seilergasse 14, 1010 Wien.
Free entry
Registration required by e-mail to: festival@lagacilly-baden.photo

SENSORY EXPERIENCES

You have to enjoy colour. This became clear to Cig Harvey when, following a visit to the optician, she realised that her eyesight was changing. Then one of her friends made a remark that annoyed her: “Colour isn’t real. It’s merely our brain’s interpretation of light waves.” For someone who has played with colours all her life and published books with titles such as Blue Violet and Emerald Drifter, that was not easy to hear.

A glance at this artist’s work is enough to see that her friend was wrong. In her still lifes and her peculiar, captivating compositions, the colours seem more real than ever. The artist succeeds in bringing out the full, original identity of the colours. For our brains, every shade – whether red, blue or green – has a taste, a smell, an aura, something indescribable, something deeply evocative for us, our emotions, reactions and instincts.

The works of the photographer, who hails from Devon, England, but lives in Maine, USA, have been included in prestigious collections. And she herself is represented by some of the leading galleries in the USA.

In her world, the quest for colour leads us down a path that re-enchants everyday life and stimulates our senses. Without confining herself to simple, poetic, abstract images, Cig Harvey adds her own reflections. Where we all too often see explanations lacking in thought and conceptual depth, this photographer’s books offer deeply felt philosophical and scientific observations. Her works are perfect.

In her introduction, she quotes a line from Matisse that sums up the whole significance of her work: “Through colour, one gains an energy that seems to come from magic.”