Installation view.
Installation view of prints from Forbidden Colours shown with a sculpture by Hannes Dünnebier, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Hauptgebäude.

Forbidden Colours

Project Overview

In this series of medium format photographs, the still life is reinterpreted in an abstract fashion that mimics the aesthetics of painting. These photographs were created in studio using a variety of household materials such as Gelatin, shampoo, glitter, and acrylic paint. After several hours, these ephemeral materials slowly melted under the heat of the studio lights and the compositions had completely dissolved.

This series takes inspiration from Lazlo Maholy-Nagy who often worked with the photographic medium as an experimental artistic platform. The title Forbidden Colours is a reference to Maholy-Nagy’s Neues Sehen (New Vision), a term he coined based on his belief that the camera could create an entirely new way of seeing the outside world that the human eye could not.

Footnotes

View the Forbidden Colours NFT Collection on OpenSea; https://opensea.io/collection/forbiddencolours
Forbidden Colours (Blue) Catalog; View PDF
Forbidden Colours (Red) Catalog; View PDF
Recapitulatio, Exhibition Catalog (Weimar, Germany); View PDF
Limited edition prints from this series are available in the editions shop; https://shop.brianbixby.com/
Forbidden Colors #3, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors #7, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors #9, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors #4, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors (Blue) 04-02, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors #10, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors #5, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Installation view of the prints, 75 x 100 cm.
Forbidden Colors (Red) 03-03, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors (Red) 03-07, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors (Red) 03-09, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors (Red) 03-05, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.
Forbidden Colors (Red) 03-04, medium format film printed on Fuji Crystal Pearl, 75 x 100 cm, 2019.