By Elin Spring
Olivia Parker’s genteel demeanor hardly suggests the fierce curiosity that has propelled her remarkable artistic career. Now, all is exposed in one of this summer’s blockbuster photography exhibits, “Order of Imagination: The Photographs of Olivia Parker,” a forty-year retrospective at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, MA, on view through November 11th, 2019.
Olivia Parker, Order of Imagination, 1991. Gelatin silver print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Olivia Parker, Evergreen Window, 2012. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
To view Parker’s artistic journey is to join in her voracious fascination for the history of human scientific and artistic endeavor, to ponder the vagaries of reality versus illusion, and to trace her lively escapades with photographic techniques. Although her genre has been the still-life, I think Parker shares the same driving philosophy as street photographer Garry Winogrand who said, “Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.”
Olivia Parker, Eggs, 2005. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Olivia Parker, Child, 1980. Dye diffusion print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
All children embark on an intense mission of discovery. However, it is the rare adult who continues to view our complex world with such open fascination, assimilating science, history and art in an exploration of “objects that are, or have been, living things – those at the edges of change.” It is precisely Parker’s sense of play and experimentation that has animated all her work and reawakens our own spirit of discovery in this enchanting exhibit.
Olivia Parker, Sea Creatures, 2014. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Orchestrated like a symphonic piece, PEM’s chronological exhibit features six distinctive movements in Parker’s photographic evolution, with a spectacular crescendo in “Still and Not So Still Life” and a sublime, transcendent finale in “Vanishing in Plain Sight.” Exhibit curator Sarah Kennel has assembled a tour de force of Parker’s photography.
Olivia Parker, Nattering Things, 2016. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Olivia Parker, Pheasant, 1976. Gelatin silver print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
We are introduced to Parker’s earliest work in elegant, large-format B&W, still-life studies that she made distinctively her own through the darkroom technique of “split-toning.” Mundane objects like flower bulbs and pheasant feathers shimmer to life with unique orange and purple tonalities. Next, frames with a cacophony of objects offer an array of contrasting forms and textures, dancing with suggestive associations that seem to spring from a marriage of Joseph Cornell’s boxes and photographer Frederick Sommer’s surrealist aesthetic.
Olivia Parker, Carousel, 1982. Gelatin silver print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Olivia Parker, Four Pears, 1979. Dye diffusion print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Parker was seduced into color photography by Cambridge-based Polaroid Corporation’s Artist Support Program, which encouraged emerging artists to experiment with their instant color technologies. Plunging into this new world, Parker became infatuated with Polacolor’s rich and dazzling hues and the instant feedback that spurred a flurry of investigative trials. While color brought Parker closer to the still-life traditions of Dutch and Spanish painting, she still eschewed convention with captivating contrasts in depth of field, her inimitable groupings of allusive objects and textures, and the introduction of other media into her frames.
Olivia Parker, Still Life with Soap Bubble, 1996. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Olivia Parker, Two Copperheads, 1999. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Like many of our most consequential experiences in life, Parker’s “Sea Change” in imagery was the result of an accident, a 1995 ski crash that severely limited her mobility. After “a year of digital immersion”, Parker emerged a newly versatile photographer, able to construct fluid composites that exemplified her enduring attraction to “changes in ideas, the continual reshaping of our mental map of the world as we know it. What is real? What is fiction? What is the relationship between the two?” “Still and Not So Still Life” is a veritable re-invention of the genre, a startling, fresh approach that introduces motion and integrates Parker’s entire storehouse – from inventive compositions sparked by depth of field and movement to her distinctive color and digital techniques – in the creation of alluring, effervescent photographs.
Olivia Parker, Sea, 2012. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Olivia Parker, Shell in a Landscape, 2011. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
Olivia Parker, Honeymoon, 2016. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
“Vanishing in Plain Sight” is not only the culmination of this flowing exhibition, but another peak in Parker’s expressive abilities. An intimate, pensive exploration of what she imagines it was like for her husband John to grapple with the devastation of Alzheimer’s Disease, Parker endeavors to channel his perceptual journey as John succumbs to the disease. The imagery is haunting and as visually gorgeous as it is intellectually searching and emotionally profound.
Olivia Parker, Frans Francken II, Oil on Copper; 1625, 2017. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
“Order of Imagination” traces Olivia Parker’s “not so still life” and invites us to more fully appreciate the dynamic range of her inspiring imagery. For more information about the exhibit and its associated programming, go to: https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/order-of-imagination-the-photographs-of-olivia-parker
Olivia Parker, A Book of Consequences, 2008. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
A 224-page exhibition catalog has been produced in conjunction with the “Order of Imagination” show, featuring beautiful image reproductions and an elucidating essay by exhibition curator Sarah Kennel. For copies go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/contact
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Feature Image: Olivia Parker, Self-Portrait, 2016. Inkjet print. © Olivia Parker (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery).
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