tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8466314672723988836.post9090386241945937694..comments2023-09-30T00:43:13.890-07:00Comments on The Current Season: The Picturesquemoderatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07653277482083573538noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8466314672723988836.post-69231072360143852432010-03-29T20:10:43.322-07:002010-03-29T20:10:43.322-07:00I agree that Ms Harvey captures the viewer philoso...I agree that Ms Harvey captures the viewer philosophically as we are led into her picturesque display of the sublime with what is seen from the distance as a gallery of paintings. We are lured into the lofty majestic imagery and the infinity of space only to be confronted with close ups of our own image in the end. We get framed by the same mirrors that once held the grandeur of mountainous landscapes. That grandeur is further minimized by the newspaper glued to the walls and the faux wainscotting. A painting can never replace the original, as it is only a subjective interpretation of it. In this installation, what seems like an attempt to inspire others with it's beauty, in turn, ends up objectifying us the viewer. What we perceive as picturesque scenery taking place in nature is really just a facsimile of the real that bears only a resemblance to it as we try to perfect our idea of beauty through nature. In the end we are confronted with ourselves, an inverse examination of the sublime beauty and our projection of what that is on nature. It's only our imagination that's real. Any sense about the lofty ideals of beauty are brought down to the banality of self, a component of the sublime.Antony Doddshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00627573023169310440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8466314672723988836.post-72696660095875412522010-03-25T09:30:28.153-07:002010-03-25T09:30:28.153-07:00I think one thing that might be interesting to inv...I think one thing that might be interesting to investigate is the fact that Ellen Harvey does in fact hand paint these fairly large vistas that the viewer is first given only a moment of and then has taken away altogether. It's as though she's saying that while we cannot so simply capture and produce the sublime, while we cannot render some easy formula for the picturesque, there's still some level of human input, or attempt, or drive behind it. Otherwise why paint it? Why make the whole thing by hand for a few simple steps of illusion and deception that you're going to put the viewer through? She could've just as easily plastered a large photo or print onto the walls an achieved much of the same illusion and re-enforced the idea of this ruination. Instead she's labored over representation and the human effort to describe what one expects to be sublime, while presenting it in a way that denies that realization. She's created a contradiction and the work rests comfortably within a kind of conflict of terms. I think this is as interesting as the way the viewer initially sees the work: fractured, distanced, and inevitably obstructed by themselves and others. But, after you've entered, after you've immersed yourself in breaking the illusion, it seems all you have to do is turn around to find it again.The Orrererhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11081181958901266024noreply@blogger.com