Robert & Shana Parkeharrison: Selections from the Counterpoint Series
Overview
In their recent work titled, Counterpoint, rendered in pale washes of color punctuated with detailed jeweled accents, the ParkeHarrison team continues to direct their orchestrated imagination to the philosophical question of modern mankind’s relationship to the ever-dwindling natural resources of our planet. In viewing the work, one feels a glimpse of nature unleashed by technology, a storytelling if you will, that connects man with nature’s destiny. The consequences of man emptying our natural resources are dark and threatening, however, some of these images are light and bountiful in their range of hues and subjects. It is an effective contrast with their earlier work. The couple has embraced color in exchange for the monochromatic toned black and white that pervaded much of their earlier projects. ParkeHarrison’s particular visual language of “dream reality” has been developed through an additive process of layering, varnish and painting. This allows them to build their constructed images into the most visually believable fantasies-we, the viewers, are completely convinced that, trees can grow from the veins of a man. Counterpoint adds a visual compass to man’s involvement and subsequent abuse of nature yet with an underlying notion of hope.