Alice Hargrave | Paradise Wavering

Paradise Wavering – by Alice Hargrave explores the beauty of the wild and a natural world in flux. Her photographs trace flora and fauna, through mangroves, tropical biospheres, forests, and midwestern prairies of a tenuous paradise.

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Curatorial Statement

The language of color is central to Alice Hargrave’s work. It functions in Paradise Wavering as a lure and a tool for emotional communication. As an environmentally motivated artist, Hargrave advocates for the preservation of the subjects she loves so dearly — the flora and fauna of our planet — by showing their fragile beauty. In her images, we experience the tenuous sublime of the natural world.Hargrave chooses which colors her photographs will be; her palette feels intuitive, like that of a well-seasoned painter. She selects a colorscape for each image and marinades the world within it in the glow. This technique saturates the viewer in the emotional microcosms of her photographs. The large green silk fabric Biosphere creates an immersive experience. You feel you can walk right into the strange green tangle of wood and leaves. The grassy tones give a sense of heat and moisture that radiate from the piece.There is a strange and effective duality in Hargrave’s use of color. Sometimes the color shifts serve to augment the beauty of the plant life she’s photographed, even as they slightly defamiliarize the subjects. At other times, the washy hues call to mind the effects of radiation or pollution, something atomic or apocalyptic. The velvety burgundy sky In Red Moon is both ominous and a feast for the eyes. The unnaturally tinted fern in Yellow Day is enticing in its soft wash of color, but it’s also slightly disturbing, as the sense of the abnormal sets in. This is how things might look when the natural world goes off tilt. Paradise is not yet entirely lost, but Hargrave warns that it can shift before our eyes.

- Lisa Woodward + Mia Dalglish