Hayden Beck Gallery

For Vancouver photographer Ken Mayer, the colour red is a symbol of authority or implied authority. This colour appears in the series of works entitled Red Furniture.

In ‘Absinthe Drinker’ Mayer references Edward Degas’ iconic painting ‘Absinthe Drinker’ which features an exhausted woman alone at a table drinking absinthe. The artist notes that the reputation of this substance is that it renders those who consume it “mad and desolate”, leading to its prohibition in many societies. Mayer’s choice to use a modern day hospital worker as the absinthe drinker represents both his impression of the current state of our health care system and the effects it has on the individuals who function within it. In this image, the authority of the system itself is evoked by the red table.

In ‘Borderlands’ the artist has created an image of an unspecified geographical area. This image draws attention to the contemporary anxiety surrounding border security and the challenges that an increasingly bureaucratized security apparatus presents to those individuals wishing to cross the border. In this photograph, the red table supporting the uniformed security guard bolsters her authority.

In ‘Tricoteuse’ Mayer makes a visual pun by contrasting the historical reference of the Reign of Terror in France and the guillotine with the rapacious modern day forestry industry. The woman seated on the red chair represents the complicit witnesses to both types of death, tree and human.