Blog - Art Impression

Dawn, dusk and everything in between

Image courtesy of the Artist and Brand New Gallery, Milano

If you ask me which hour of the day is my favorite, I would say sunrise and sunset. Because they both carry the pink shade. Those are my pink hours.

There are so many moments in a day that I feel like it can go on forever. Do you remember a song that says there are four seasons in one day? Sometimes the morning starts with a high note, and then the afternoon winds down considerably, and the evening comes with much surprise. Planning for a day is a big task, let alone planning your future. There is a gift in realizing different phases in living each and every day. I started enjoying the mundanity, planning around activities and basically leading my life, one step at a time. I feel rather happy doing so. I am right now in a transition period. I will tell you more about it later when things get clearer. All I can say is this is interesting. I am thrilled to open another page. New people have entered my life and I am beginning to navigate a new territory. I am curious and excited to unlock doors and see what lies ahead.

As for art, there is also a big step. I have the permission to write about Ori Gersht’s artwork: After Dark from Chasing Good Fortune: Tokyo Imperial Memories. He is a world renowned artist, highly respected for his advanced technology in using high speed camera to capture clarity of blowing up still life objects while transmitting a melancholic message of presenting beauty in the face of ruin. "Ori Gersht is a conduit between the past and the present, which imbue his work with a compelling tension between beauty and violence, memory and history." (1) The twist of rocky, underlying approach has challenged me in personal articulation of writing this art impression piece.

The photography of Ori Gersht seduces me with the sheer beauty of pink cherry blossom. Someone says that Pink is red's sorry. I don't think so. Pink is not a duplicate of any color. It is not a short version of red; nor is it a high version of peach. Pink is warm, cozy and cuddly. Pink is the color of a baby. A barbie doll in a pink Cadillac heading into the Miami sunset. Or a princess in a pink dress promenading on the imperial street of Tokyo. For these snowy, misty days in the winter, I need lots and lots of pink, so as to make me feel comfortable, secure and bubbly. Pink is young, cute and girly. No reason to be so harsh. After going through different shades in life: the Green of youth, the solid Black of success, the Red of sacrificing, and the Purple of frustration, it is normal to appreciate the bubbly Pink coming my way as often as possible.

The Pink reminds me of Audrey Hepburn, who believed in Pink, and she had something about her that can immediately light up everything around. Audrey Hepburn has a very special place in my heart. No doubt about it. Her life story is inspiring. She said, "I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it". Her utter charm, an incredible leap of faith and elegant attitude have brought an "ordinary" lady to stardom that lasts beyond her lifetime as an iconic Hollywood legend of all time. Her life was by the way not all that rosy and pinky. She once admitted, "My own life has been much more than a fairy tale. I've had my share of difficult moments, but whatever difficulties I've gone through, I've always gotten a prize at the end".

The photography is not only about Pink. The image structure is even more luring, to the point that there is an odd feel to it. It is beyond ordinary to execute the ability to capture light at night with such long exposure and enhancing the closed up flowers to the highest detail while focusing enough on the distant background. The scene was set up meticulously. He must have used a professional crew and special equipment to produce an incredible shoot in the outside environment. Every small part of the flowers is taken and a vast scenery of the river and boat in the background is clearly preserved in such dark environment. His mastery of shooting technique at night is evident. Through all the persistence and hard work, Ori Gersht has found beauty that is rarely seen.

While being lost in the unusual scene, I am puzzled by a white flash coming out from the pink. The feeling of Pink turns into white bleach, something disturbing, something uncomfortable to the eyes. It looks almost like a tip of the front part on the image is overexposed on purpose? Or is it that the pink flowers are exploding? The explosive flowers remind me of red firecrackers used during the "Tet" holidays, the lunar New Year. This is what I choose to believe. The red color comes with the tradition of receiving a red envelope with lucky money inside, the so called "Li Xi" in Vietnamese. I was often told not to throw the remainders of blown up firecrackers away because they resemble luck. Waking up on the first day of New Year, seeing firecrackers scattered everywhere on the ground gives me an assuring feeling of new future, new hope and new life.

The explosive Pink is powerful as it is the last color we see during the convergence of time between the old year and the New Year. All the hard work we have done in the past twelve months, leading up the hours of ultimate transition has just burst into a waterfall of spring cherry blossom. We start all over again. In the hope of new life exists a destruction of the old life. The concept of "the Tree of Life" associates with parts of the day: dawn, dusk and everything in between.

Perhaps living in the pink is a fortune. Having the opportunity to choose colors is a privilege. To feel the different shades of light is luck. I hope you will see it, too. Overcoming the heavy, ugly part to enjoy the Pink shade of cherry blossom is delicate, but not impossible. Audrey Hepburn would look at me and say: "Darling, Be girly. Be bubbly. Never stop believing in Cinderella …"

Reference:
1: History Repeating - Museum Fine Art, Boston.

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