Pink is a pigment loaded with connotation. The website Color Psychology calls it 鈥渧ery contradictory," noting that 鈥渋ts meaning can depend greatly on the culture and context in which it is presented.鈥�
This contentious color is the focus of 鈥淪eeing Pink,鈥� an exhibition of photographs by Lisa Kessler, a part-time faculty member in the Art, Art History and Film Studies Department.
The selection of 15 images is part of a larger body of some 80 works that explore the color pink in America. These documentary photographs 鈥減lay with the myriad connotations we attach to pink, a color charged with meaning,鈥� according to Kessler. 聽聽
Why pink?
鈥淚t鈥檚 a sensational color,鈥� Kessler says. 鈥淧ink stands out, it draws our eye and affects our senses. It is jam-packed with all kinds of meanings, many of them conflicting. It is a gender marker, symbolizing everything that is female 鈥� from delicate pink baby clothes to the ubiquitous shocking pink, to the many shades of breast cancer awareness.
鈥淚 was not a fan of the color pink. But I like conflict, I like meaning, and I wanted to work on a project that might make people smile.鈥�
Kessler鈥檚 feeling 鈥渢hat we are all pink inside鈥� 鈥� and the notion that she 鈥渃ould broaden my vision by narrowing my focus on this one hue鈥� 鈥� launched a journey in 2007 that has sent her across the US looking for the color pink, including a return over the summer to Pink Hill, NC.聽
The works represent a range of subject matter based on her extensive research: 鈥淪ome I go to and others I come upon,鈥� she explains. In the former approach, she arranges access to places where she thinks she 鈥渃an create photographs that resonate with some idea about the color pink.鈥澛�
In the latter, she has 鈥渂een fortunate to come upon some wonderful pink gems that I never could have imagined,鈥� like 鈥淐ornfield.鈥� 鈥淧hotographing in the real world you don鈥檛 know what will happen, what you鈥檒l discover, what marks you will find that people have made. I鈥檓 interested in the different ways people use the color pink either to convey their ideas about gender or simply because they like the way it looks.鈥澛�
Kessler said she is happy for her students and colleagues to see the work at 51茶馆.
The department 鈥渋s a very friendly and supportive place for an artist. I enjoy the exchange of ideas with my colleagues there and at the McMullen Museum,鈥� added Kessler, who teaches Photography 1, a black-and-white darkroom class.
Beyond 51茶馆, 鈥淪eeing Pink鈥� has been displayed at the Danforth Museum as well as other venues and described in a Boston Globe review as 鈥渮esty and playful without being at all unserious.鈥�
Kessler is at work on a book based on the project and named for the exhibit.
鈥淭he work is accessible but also conceptual. People expect documentary work to be done in one community or to be about one particular subject. 鈥楽eeing Pink鈥� is more conceptual, more about the ideas we bring to the color rather than the color itself.鈥� 聽
Asked if the color pink has grown on her during its near-decade at the center of this project, she said: 鈥淭he color doesn鈥檛 have a hold over me anymore, I鈥檓 not afraid of feeling diminished by it, and I now enjoy the spectacle the color can create.鈥�
鈥淪eeing Pink,鈥� Kessler explains, 鈥渞evels in the sensations of pink, both fettered and unfettered by our ideas. Pink is simply a color, but it is also a signifier, one that confines and liberates, and ultimately holds a mirror to our culture.鈥澛�
The exhibit, sponsored by the Boston College Libraries, is on view through December 31 in the O鈥橬eill Library Level Three Gallery. For more information, .
鈥擱osanne Pellegrini | University Communications