By Elin Spring
In the natural world, pollination makes a dash for the future. Spring unfurls its signs of rebirth and energizes our winter weary souls. Such transformations are a constant in the cycle of life, a truth that continually catapults the imagination of photographer Olivia Parker. In her latest collaboration with nature, she hijacks the life cycle of her backyard mushrooms as they fertilize the ground during their flamboyant death throes in autumn. In Parker’s inventive scrutiny of an ordinary miracle that most of overlook, “Persephone’s Graffiti” bursts and swirls across the walls at Robert Klein Gallery in Boston through May 4th, 2024.
“Ink 93” 2021 from the series Persephone’s Graffiti by Olivia Parker, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
“Ink 36” 2020 from the series Persephone’s Graffiti by Olivia Parker, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Persephone, the Greek goddess of spring, was imbued with the gift of fertilization and bestowed each of her charges with its own dance. As mushrooms approach the end of their brief stay on the earth’s surface, the spores tucked into their caps burst forth, dusting the ground, then liquifying to sink in and await their next spring bloom.
“Ink 96” 2021 from the series Persephone’s Graffiti by Olivia Parker, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
In an act of artful curiosity, Parker snatches mushrooms as they approach demise, placing each on its own stage of white paper, and observes the unfolding play. Along the way, she photographs the explosions of spores and colorful changes. One can view this as a granular microcosm or conceive larger pictures. Mushroom stalks can appear like geologic structures such as a peninsula with waves striking the shore. In others, rivers run through lava fields or crystalline shards shoot through rocky fields.
“Ink 107” 2022 from the series Persephone’s Graffiti by Olivia Parker, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
As the mushrooms’ spores liquefy, inky black fluid reflecting blue skies above and the tracks of insects passing across the paper’s surface join in a sonata of heaven and earth. Brown and yellow tones sprout vibrant blues and greens, while textures and shadows create alluring dimensionality.
“Ink 20” 2020 from the series Persephone’s Graffiti by Olivia Parker, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
“Ink 105” 2022 from the series Persephone’s Graffiti by Olivia Parker, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Fascinating abstractions seen closeup can become Rorschach’s at a distance: an exotic flower, a cascading waterfall or an enchanting owl. In Persephone’s Graffiti, Parker transforms ordinary into extraordinary through a mesmerizing perspective that can multiply into whole new worlds. A fitting welcome to spring.
“Ink 19” 2020 from the series Persephone’s Graffiti by Olivia Parker, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Olivia Parker’s photographs will be exhibited at Robert Klein Gallery through May 4th, 2024. In an online gallery at Robert Klein’s website, Parker’s work is shown in conversation with Gohar Dashti’s “Disappearing Nature,” a series of enlarged Polaroids of landscapes that were intentionally damaged as omens of a future threatened by climate change.
Online gallery of Persephone’s Graffiti by Olivia Parker in dialog with Disappearing Nature by Gohar Dashti, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
For more information, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/exhibitions/79-olivia-parker-persephone-s-graffiti-gohar-dashti-disappearing/overview/
Feature Image: “Ink 6” 2020, from the series Persephone’s Graffiti by Olivia Parker, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
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