Dec 10th, 2022 — Feb 25th, 2023
By appointment only
Sage Culture Gallery
725 E Washington Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90021
past event — exhibition
Sage Culture is honored to present "Consciousness," an exhibition realized in collaboration with Andrew Parker, CEO of Lifescaped and Senior Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.
The gallery is especially proud to showcase for the first time in the United States the work of Professor Parker, a scientist and artist who has been, over the past 25 years, dedicating his life to researching photonic structures and eyes: evolution, development, and biomimetics. His main field of study is the diversity and evolution of structural color in nature.
The Exhibition presents Professor Parker's outstanding achievements, showcasing cutting-edge technology representing the ultimate intersection between art and science. For "Consciousness," the concept was expanded through a visual conversation with seven guest artists: Kustaa Saksi, Álvaro Negro, Orlanda Broom, Filipa Tojal, Michal Fargo, Sasha Ferré, and Gwen Hardie.
Andrew Parker began his career as an artist and a scientist, two callings he united through his fascination with, and heightened sense of, color. As a PhD student in the 1990s, he examined tiny marine animals famous for their nocturnal bioluminescent light displays. Working at the Los Angeles County Museum, Andrew discovered that some of these animals exhibited another type of light display – iridescence, or structural color. From tiny body parts, colorless surfaces containing microscopic structures reflected mesmerizing blues and greens. And that architecture was new to biology.
Andrew began to identify micro-architectures in animals and plants that produced a type of structural color with an ultra-bright yet velvety hue, like those of the Californian hummingbirds. Andrew found that in many of these cases, the general principles of light reflection were the same, and he sought to reproduce them himself in his lab and studio.
After many years of experimentation, Andrew succeeded in making this color using industrial machines in conventional manufacturing works. The same deep, luxurious yet intense color effect as seen on a Morpho butterfly's wing or a peacock's neck plumage sprung from workshops in a complete spectrum of hues. This could be considered the world's brightest coloration, and became known as Pure Structural Colour®.
In 2015, Professor Parker founded his lab and studio Lifescaped with the outstanding support of King Charles III. Through Lifescaped, Professor Andrew continuously researches the intersections between science, art, and design, focusing on bio-inspiration.
As an artist, Andrew Parker has developed a vast body of work inspired by nature, evolutionary events, and the developmental processes of bodies. His scientific background goes hand in hand with his artistic development. After his discoveries with Pure Structural Colour®, he began using it in his artistic creations to replace standard pigments.
In 2021, Andrew Parker exhibited his artistic work and Pure Structural Colour® at KEW Gardens in London, one of the greatest botanical gardens in the world. The exhibition, entitled Naturally Brilliant Colour, showcased Andrew's cutting-edge technology in a gallery setting for the first time and was highly appreciated by the general public and critics.
Sage Culture is also honored to present a short film about the work of Andrew Parker and Pure Structural Colour. The film is a production by '© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew' and Lifescaped. Click below to watch the captivating short film:
This exhibition comprises a novel contribution to the Light and Space movement of Southern California. Here, Pure Structural Colour® is introduced; a uniquely rich and intense form of color, of seemingly infinite depth, that can captivate and mesmerize the observer. But this visual experience is generated within the mind of the observer, and has co-evolved with the visual system over eons of time.
The dialogue between the evolutionary aspect of each color and its pure form found in nature with the artist's perspectives enhances the sensation.
For the "Consciousness" exhibition at Sage Culture, Andrew produced seven 50cm-diameter Pure Structural Colour® discs in different hues. Each hue represents an aspect of the human psyche that evolved within the brain's regions dedicated to vision.
Made using only transparent materials, each Pure Structural Colour® disc reflects a hue in the white spotlight with optimal brightness, triggering effects in our visual system that seemingly captures the psychological aspect portrayed.
According to Andrew's Line of Sight hypothesis, As our ancestors evolved, our brains extracted and acted upon increasing information from our retinas, which ultimately led to higher consciousness.
For the concept of "Consciousness," seven special guest artists were invited to present an artwork exploring the subject of one of the featured colors and its subjective meaning for each of them.
Regarding the theme for each colored disc, the evolution of the brain culminated in higher consciousness, a character that is unique to humans. Without the step-wise addition of other psychological characters, though, we would have not reached this stage of evolution. Indeed, the story begins with the appearance of the first eye, without which, color would not exist.
The dialogue between the evolutionary aspect of each color and its pure form found in nature with the artist's perspectives enhances the sensation of the psychological aspect of each color.
In addition, there couldn't be a better place for Professor Parker to start his exhibition tour in the United States than California, as the Light and Space Movement strongly influences his work.