Christine Elfman
Even Amaranth
Gallery Wendi Norris
161 Jessie Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
July 14 – September 3, 2016
Reception: July 14, 5-8 pm
Artist Talk: July 14, 6 pm (Elfman in conversation with David Maisel)

July 14, Gallery Wendi Norris opens Even Amaranth, an exhibition of new photographs by Christine Elfman. Elfman presents a series of photographs she has created using amaranth—a flowering plant called “unfading” by the Greeks and associated with the goddess Diana. Elfman grew the plant from seed and photographed a group of marble statues and plaster casts, using the plant’s juice as a photographic emulsion to produce a series of amaranth on paper prints. These works are displayed alongside a series of silver gelatin and pigment prints (some colored with amaranth), including a number of landscapes that display past human engagement and abandonment. Elfman, presenting photographic prints documenting human activity alongside an examination of a natural material as both functional and fugitive, underlines the physical qualities and limitations of the photographic image.
 

Torso of Actaeon I, 2016. Amaranth on paper, 29.5 x 37 inches. Edition of 3 + 2AP. Courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris.

Mask of Camille Claudel, 2016. Amaranth on paper, 16 x 20 inches. Edition of 3 + 2AP. Courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris.

Ash, 2015, Pigment print, 40.5 x 51 inches. Edition of 3 + 2AP. Courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris.

Amaranth, 2016. Silver gelatin print colored with amaranth, 30 x 40 inches. Edition of 3 + 2AP. Courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris.

Amaranth Extraction I, 2016. Silver gelatin print colored with amaranth, 17.5 x 13.5 inches. Edition of 3 + 2AP. Courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris.