Sea of Tranquility 2024
In her latest work “Sea of Tranquility”, the fragility and vulnerability of her self-proclaimed experience as a photographer culminates is a landscape of angelic figures sprawled out in a circular design fit for any majestic Renaissance ceiling. The duality of the central figures, a man and a woman, lay opposite each other as if guiding us on some higher purpose. Set in a sea of color and complex and chaotic shapes, the figures are oddly serene, united by reflecting materials and a central core. In “Sea of Tranquility” the artist questions humanity’s need for suffering in order to be fully free, as if suffering and freedom formed it’s own conspicuous dichotomy. Accordingly, she named it after the first location on another celestial body to be visited by humans; the landing site on the Moon called "Mare Tranquillitatis” on July 20, 1969. If we can send a man to the moon, what else are we capable of? I wonder if we can end war on this planet.
The Sirens 2021
Drama, movement and light come to life in swirls of color, set against the darkness of night in underwater artist Christy Lee Rogers' depiction of the strength and opposing vulnerability of humanity. The water within the images flows life to all areas, taking on bold curving forms and transforming everyday people into angelic creatures, seemly from some other place. In these works Rogers hypothesizes the idea that if photons of light are without mass and only perceived because of the eyes, then there must be other things around us that we can not perceive of as of yet.
About the concept— “The Sirens” singing enchantresses capable of luring passing sailors to their islands, and, subsequently, to their doom. Daughters of the river god Achelous and a Muse, they were fated to die if anyone should survive their singing. An allegory of temptation, longing and the beauty and tragedy of love."
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by COCA.
Christy Lee Rogers
United States
https://www.christyleerogers.com
Christy Lee Rogers was most recently commissioned by James Cameron and Disney to shoot the stars of Avatar – Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Kate Winslet to raise money for The Nature Conservancy. She is a visual artist from Kailua, Hawaii. Her obsession with water as a medium for breaking the conventions of contemporary photography has led to her work being compared to Baroque painting masters like Caravaggio. Boisterous in color and complexity, Rogers applies her original technique to a barrage of bodies submerged in water during the night, and creates her effects using the refraction of light. Through a fragile process of experimentation, she builds elaborate scenes of coalesced colors and entangled bodies that exalt the human character as one of vigor and warmth, while also capturing the beauty and vulnerability of the occasionally tragic experience that is the human condition.