A Hint of Blue II
This photograph depicts Sekai Machache at the centre of an elaborately staged composition in a domestic setting. Machache stands behind a large table arranged with characteristic elements of a traditional still life including tableware, flowers, food and candles. The photograph interrogates the history of still life as a genre which artists have used to refine their skills in painting objects, and studies of light, tone, and colour, and which art patrons have used to show off their wealth through their lavish objects. The conventions of still life are disrupted by Machache who inserts herself as the subject of the work, holding a carafe and a cup while wearing a white turban on her head, and so blends self-representation and portraiture with the still life genre.
The wider series ‘The Divine Sky’ is underpinned by an exploration of the colour blue. A Hint of Blue focuses on Cobalt blue, a pigment traditionally associated with Blue Willow Chinaware, represented by the tableware in this photograph. Blue Willow porcelain can be traced to the Tang dynasty in China (618-906) but has been appropriated and used as a cheap commodity in the West since the 19th century. The titles from this larger project are taken from the 12 stages in the indigo dyeing process: Blue of Nothingness, A Hint of Blue, Milky Blue, Lively Blue, Azure Blue, Blue of the Horizon, Ultramarine, Assertive Blue, The Divine Sky, Light Divine Sky, Deep Divine Sky, Profound Divine Sky.