Via sneaker and water bottles, she mines the relationship between organic and synthetic worlds 
In partnership with On

Emily McDermott

Artist Pamela Rosenkranz: ‘The color pink does not exist’

Through an acute understanding of color and form, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6728/Pamela-Rosenkranz" target="_blank">Pamela Rosenkranz</a> investigates the contemporary human condition – from our social norms to our relationship with the natural world to the functionality of our own bodies. To address such a range of topics, the 44-year-old works with an equally vast array of media, including sculpture, painting, video, performance, and installation.
In collaboration with the brand On, Rosenkranz has created a limited-edition Cloudnova Form sneaker based on her drawing Healer Scrolls (2022). The drawing was made while planning her largest physical public artwork to date: Old Tree (2023), a towering 25-foot-tall sculpture currently installed in New York City’s High Line park. The critically lauded sculpture shows, in essence, a giant, bright pink-and-red tree; but at the same time, it closely resembles the branching parts of the human nervous and circulatory systems – an intentional interweaving. When digitally rendering the sculpture in 3D prior to its production, Rosenkranz merged scans of actual trees with scans of human blood vessels, tissues, and muscles; Healer Scrolls was a hand drawing, made with red ink, based on these renderings.

Beyond the immediate visual associations, Healer Scrolls and Old Tree contain a multitude of references. The symbol of the tree itself can allude to the ancient concept of the tree of life, a representation of life, fertility, and immortality; of a connection between humans and celestial beings, between Earth and other realms. It also points toward a potential future, positing the human-made as nature. The pink-red hues hold significance, too.
‘In my work, I have been engaging with compositions of colors as abstract and monochromatic substrates, as liquid formulas of the human,’ Rosenkranz explains. ‘The underlying pink, as a substrate of flesh or human matter, was the defining color tone for the Old Tree, which renders the primordial symbol of the “tree” – of a pure and uncorrupted nature – into something that collapses with the cultural, the human.’ And when it comes to the drawing applied to the Cloudnova Forms, ‘The untinted shoe works as canvas and contains semi-transparent elements; membranes that shimmer through like skin,’ the artist continues.

In addition to its fleshy qualities, there is also the fact that the color pink does not actually exist. Light visible to the human eye comes in a spectrum of different colors, each with its own wavelength. On one end of the spectrum is red, a low-frequency, low-energy light with a long wavelength. On the other end is violet, a high-frequency, high-energy light with a very short wavelength. Pink should, in theory, exist somewhere between violet and red; however, the opposite ends of the spectrum never meet. Thus, every brain conjures its own representations of what might be between these two wavelengths, forming a slew of imaginary colors in the range of pinks and magentas. Pink is, as Rosenkranz says, ‘a mental performance.’
Throughout her practice, pink has often been Rosenkranz’s color of choice. In the series ‘Firm Being’ (2009-ongoing), she fills disposable plastic water bottles from ‘luxury’ water brands such as Fiji, Evian, and smartwater with pigmented silicone. When she first began the series, shades of pink always took the place of the waters these brands promote as artesian, ‘untouched by man,’ a ‘natural source of youth,’ or the best water to experience ‘purity and hydration.’ By tinting the liquid, Rosenkranz prompts the consumer to see their plastic purchases anew: unnatural, perhaps poisonous, most definitely touched by man. In a photographic series from 2021, the artist plays on contemporary associations with the word ‘Amazon’. Anamazon (Wild Life), for instance, is a digital print of a stock photo of a rainforest, which Rosenkranz covered with swirls of pink acrylic paint. With works such as these, Rosenkranz ‘makes no distinction between industrial products and raw materials, the living world and the product,’ as French curator and critic Nicolas Bourriaud once wrote; and she uses color to upend established conventions or boundaries.

Similarly, diminishing the separation between the drawing, the shoe, and the life of a human, Rosenkranz considered the foot-brain connection during her collaboration with On. ‘Throughout the process I kept thinking about Leonardo da Vinci’s quote, “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art,”’ she says. ‘Feet are amazing, and as the lower ends of our body, the counter point to the head.’ Our feet and brains might be the parts of our bodies that are physically the farthest apart, but – as evidenced in countless scientific studies – they are inextricably intertwined.
‘I am also interested in the influence of walking upright – this ability that is so important for humans – on thinking,’ Rosenkranz says. ‘Walking seems to be the ideal speed for our brain to process impressions and to grasp thoughts.’ Her work, she explains, ‘is always first created while thinking, and ideas are often created while walking. Being able to make a tangible, usable object that stimulates thought and blood circulation and reflects my work through collaboration with On has fascinated me.’

As an artist who so visibly and repeatedly questions the age of the Anthropocene, the fact that she has designed a shoe – an object that is, ultimately, for humans to consume – might come as somewhat of a surprise. Rosenkranz explains: ‘If I apply a hand drawing made with ink to an object, then the hand drawing is still something personal, handmade. And that is an exciting trace of life on a highly technically produced shoe. They are a commentary on the actual physical social encounter, the feelings of connection and life.’

Emily McDermott is a writer and editor living in Munich. 
 
In the heart of New York on the High Line, Pamela Rosenkranz's Old Tree, resembling both human organs and plant life, showcases the interconnectedness between nature and humanity. Partnering with <a href="http://www.on.com/">On</a>, her limited edition Cloudnova Form merges the hues of her organic drawings with the shoe's canvas, emphasizing the intertwining of the body's inner workings and the essence of nature. The collaboration embodies a lifestyle appreciative of art and movement, encouraging contemplation and physical engagement.
The Cloudnova Form Pamela Rosenkranz will be launched exclusively with Art Basel, with a limited number of sneakers available for purchase online and onsite at Art Basel Miami Beach 2023. To be notified of this exclusive release, please <a href="https://shop.artbasel.com/">sign-up here</a>.
Published on November 29, 2023.
Caption for full-bleed image: Healer Scrolls (detail), 2023.Photograph by Sebastian Lendenmann.

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Via sneaker and water bottles, she mines the relationship between organic and synthetic worlds

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