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"Tripping" on the New Poetic Photography in Chelsea Agora
Gallery.
-by Marie R. Pagano
The emergence of a new lyrical tendency in contemporary
photography indicates that a growing number of photo artists no longer feel
compelled to prove their avant garde credentials to the detriment of the
poetic effects at which their medium excels. This is one of several insights
prompted by "Tripping the Light Fantastic: An Exhibition of Fine Art
Photography" at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, in Chelsea, from March
22 to April 11 (Reception: March 23, from 6 to 8 PM).
Anne C. Savedge projects an almost baroque quality in her photographs,
through which she aims to "transform" her subjects rather than merely record
them. Trained as a painter, Savedge has been known to draw on her negatives,
scan them, alter them with Photoshop, and use other methods of manipulation
to produce the expressive distortions that animate her color prints of
floral, landscape, and human subjects, lending them a magic that transcends
the literal.
Veils of Water and Other Works: Digital Photographs by Anne
Savedge
Barbara Bishop Gallery, Center for Visual Arts
Anne Savedge is known for her richly layered digital images
of people and water. Her works are complex, beautiful, and dreamy montages
of children swimming underwater. Anne explains, "My belief is that a
photograph can transform. I do not try to record the truth, but to create a
different dimension, using colors, objects, reflections, lights, movement
and people. This work is presented as a vision of what could be, not what
is." Anne Savedge teaches photography at Chesterfield Technical Center and
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Among other awards, she is a 2001-2002
recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Artist
Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited across the country.
COOL
Riverviews Artspace, Lynchburg, VA
This summer, Riverviews Artspace invites you to escape the
heat and see our brand new exhibition! COOL will provide a refreshing
atmosphere and allow viewers to experience three distinct artistic media.
COOL uses water imagery as a common thread. However, each artist approaches
the subject matter with his/her own style. The photography by Anne
Savedge
explores what photography, as a medium, can do
to change one's perception of a space. Traditionally, photography has been
used to capture an actual moment in time...a piece of reality. Savedge uses
a combination of traditional and digital photography to create new
environments. The waterfall and fountain scenes depicted in her work show a
place and time that are real but have been enlivened by her artistic hand.
The end result is a scene that is simultaneously fresh and familiar.
Curator Trudi Van Dyke from the Ellipse Art Center in
Arlington, VA, who wrote, "Anne Savedge's creative skills transform the
timeless interaction of people and water. The viewer is drawn into her work
as a voyeur through the watery mist. The elongated figures are transformed
into ghost-like hallucinations. The format of Niagara Falls Frieze
compliments the angular feel of the figures and captures the sheeting
effects of the water. Interlaid negatives in Fountain Frieze provide
repetitive patterns that open opportunities to visually interact."
William Hennessey, Director of the Chrysler Museum in
Norfolk Va. said, “Captivating and mysterious, this work fascinates visitors
in the photography gallery where it is displayed. I particularly enjoy the
way the work, while referring back to the traditions of classical sculpture
also challenges the viewer to consider the possibilities of contemporary
digital technology."
The review in
Style Magazine, Jan. 26, 1999, by Paulette Roberts-Pullen stated, "
Anne Savedge's surreal photographic images of people and water add a human
dimension to this show. Using an exaggerated horizontal format she calls a
"frieze," she manipulates digital images. Her forms are distorted to near
abstraction while colors are washed to produce milky tones."
"Savedge's figures are transformed by waterfalls and fountains surrounding
them. These figures become icy gnomes in "Niagara Frieze" where, in hooded
raincoats, they stand before a rush of water spray. In "Fountain Frieze I"
and "Fountain Frieze II" the figures are joyful children leaping through an
urban fountain. With emphasis on the horizontal plane, Savedge produces
images that at first suggest a narrative "reading" as in Classical friezes.
But in reality, these bands simply offer images of figures that alternately
disappear and emerge from falling mist. With this simple gesture, Savedge
captures qualities of water and light that are rarely seen in photography."
Great Sites
Ken Windsor Internet Art Journalist
http://www.pixiport.com/index.html
It takes a while to actually get to the images by ANNE
SAVEDGE - but wow are they different. Photography is always moving on - and
it is great when someone produces original work, but work which still has
its' roots in traditional photography. review by Thomas MacGillivray
Humphrey, Jr. I saw hooded, cowled, elongated figures. The work reminded me
of veiled Iraqi women, Bosnian or Kurdish refugees, or some other bereft and
beleaguered diaspora. There is both a sinister element, like that of a
secret society, sect, or witches' coven, but also an epic Biblical effect -
that of a wandering or exodus. It may be a stretch, but I could even see the
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse galloping toward me, like the opening
credits of some Sergio Leone / Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. The point
is that the piece is very mysterious, powerful, and impressionistic, and
open to many individual readings.
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