Details
Mariah Robertson (B. 1975)
Gladiola Window RGB#1

C-print
18½ x 22¾in. (47 x 58cm.)
Executed in 2007, this work is number one from an edition of five plus two artist proofs.
Provenance
Guild & Greyshkul, New York.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2007.
Exhibited
New York, Marvelli Gallery, Palomar: Experimental Photography, 2009 (another from the edition exhibited).
London, Saatchi Gallery, Out of Focus: Photography, 2012, no. MR.19 (illustrated in colour, unpaged).
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Lot Essay

‘When,’ asks the New York-based photographer Mariah Robertson, ‘do the rules that govern photography actually limit photography?’ This question, which stands at the core of Robertson’s eclectic, ceaselessly experimental oeuvre, might be answered by Gladiola Window RGB #1, previously exhibited at the 2012 Saatchi Gallery exhibition ‘Out of Focus: Photography’. A seemingly mundane image – a gladiola in front of a window, partially concealed by blinds – is transmuted through digital collaging techniques and filters in the primary red, green and blue of the light spectrum into a kaleidoscopic fantasia. Although all the elements of the original photograph are recognisable, Robertson’s rule-breaking has transfigured reality into illusion. The work’s near-geometric layout harks back to early twentieth-century abstract painting, while its formal trickery recalls the avant-garde experiments of Man Ray. Robertson’s work, which is held in the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Sir Elton John Photography Collection, constitutes a significant continuation of this earlier exploratory tradition.
Post Lot Text
VAT rate of 20% is payable on hammer price and buyer's premium.

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