Resplendence

RESPLENDENCE, 2012- 2023, film photography. The images invite the viewer into meditative contemplation on the relationships between place and motivation. Amongst the etheric, material, and afferent impressions the landforms invite transcending into realms within. The dramatic landscapes convey a reverent sense of quiet tension between magnanimous notions of nature and the role of individual human lives. The existentialist vision of nuance weaves emotion and cognition through the performative apparatus of photography. Focusing congruent fields and reflexively impressing their forms through sight into the human body, the exposures lend themselves to questions on life, particularly the roles time and light have in generating Place. Questions of subjectivity looks into the formation of latent images. Rarely, if ever, a 1:1 relation, the memories and codes within the viewer are woven with the perceptions of Resplendence. Where and how does the land out-there form the inner landscapes to dominate or acquiesce? Considering layers of densities in perception, the images paid sensitivity to ways those spaces and forms are accessible or subliminally shielded, psychologically coded, and culturally deemed real and verifiable. While the north shore of Chicago, California, and primarily Norway, including Østlandet, Trøndelag, and Nordland are represented, instead of actual geographic locations, Resplendence focuses on contributing to opening up and inviting viewers into the field of imagination in a time where such places may seem forbidden. 

A book dummy was made in 2023 alongside Albumen Gallery’s exhibition. The spreads are designed to flow, creating a sense of subtle movement within the reader. Saal Digital printed the first book with an acrylic cover and leather like binding. Request a special edition or inquire about publishing at: rachel@rachelwolfe.com

Further background:  Remembering invites pause to consider where beliefs around the way nature is or works, can reveal a logic proported as one thing, performing as an entirely different function. The foundational motives in authoritarian psyches are based more in vision of nature instead of nature itself. The nature has often been coopted as an alibi for human behavior, and continues to be our field of dreams, projections, martyr, savior, triangulated reason for accepting or rejecting social narratives. As one of several examples, follied beliefs drove forced labor at Vemork Kraftverk during WWII.  Workers resisted orders and broke small parts of the heavy water production. Due to resistance, the advancement of nuclear technology was thwarted under the hate and dominating motivations of the reich. Later on, heavy water is not needed to procure nuclear chain reactions to generate energy. The heavy water manufactured under Hitler's regime was sunk to the bottom of the nearby body of water in Vemork. Insofar as we know about the states of water, there are several forms producing subtle variations in our ability to perceive through sense and what makes sense. And in that sense, of the way things go, resistance aligns with an ode to the season often most feared or misunderstood. All that falls becomes transmuted through the earth under the weight of Winter. The Resplendence series was formerly several different collections Vereri, Heavy Water, and Landscape Psychologies. Throughout the evolution of the project created through intuitive and existential processes, was later found to have congruent motivations. Vereri, to have respect for, can also be found out through conflict, such as in the etymological roots of wær, or war. In a prayer for truth, may all that is revealed in these images living with and through them today, be proof the truth is remembered and found in love.

RESPLENDENCE POEM

a placide horizon feigns a twilight

promising entryway toward oblivion

enumerating plurality as everyone

a toy mountain within sight

precipatory shores impose upon

a horizon hidden behind spines

of mountains hawthorned by

meteorological phenomenon

a yolked encourvature

reaching to kiss the moss lake enclosure

spatters a light upon

a placide reservoir

with stillness emphatically elusive

metallic refraction evocative

respite pool of heavens

graces barrens of resplendence

magenta hues are foretold to be

silvery kisses of hope in a fog laden landscape

penetrated by a few golden slices

feeding forest paths underfoot

begging my bones a curvature to rest upon

a geologically stabilising curvature

kissed by long afternoons’ horizon

placated by the winds’ dappled whimsy

through a darkened underbrush a cloudscape

beckons my footsteps towards a solace

of promise

and barren mirroring

a longing nearly here

emptied vessel in wait

pinnacle in demand

the rivers go rushing toward

a meadow blossoming

and skies threatening

only an equalising, ever lapping horizon.

-RW, March 2023, Paris, France

Photography, 2014-2021, Norway, Copyright Rachel Wolfe, All Rights Reserved.

Prints and exhibition on view at Albumen Gallery

un horizon placide feint un crépuscule

porte d'entrée prometteuse vers l'oubli

énumérant la pluralité comme tout le monde

une montagne de jouets à portée de vue

les rivages précipitants imposent à

un horizon caché derrière les épines

de montagnes aubépines

phénomène météorologique

une courbure jaune

atteignant pour embrasser l'enceinte du lac de mousse

projette une lumière sur

un réservoir placide

avec une immobilité emphatiquement insaisissable

réfraction métallique évocatrice

piscine de répit des cieux

grâces landes de splendeur

les teintes magenta sont prédites

baisers argentés d'espoir dans un paysage chargé de brouillard

pénétré de quelques tranches dorées

alimentation des sentiers forestiers sous les pieds

implorant mes os une courbure sur laquelle reposer

une courbure géologiquement stabilisatrice

embrassée par l'horizon des longs après-midi

apaisé par la fantaisie tachetée des vents

à travers un sous-bois sombre un paysage nuageux

fait signe à mes pas vers un réconfort

de promesse

et miroir stérile

un désir presque ici

navire vidé en attente

sommet de la demande

les rivières se précipitent vers

une prairie en fleurs

et le ciel menaçant

seulement un horizon d'égalisation, toujours clapotis

-RW, mars 2023, Paris, France