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
Resplendence