"Veiled"
'Veiled' is a series of draped figures in vibrant reds, concealing identities to merge personal and universal narratives. This collection contemplates the archetype of 'the mother," exploring identity's fluidity within societal and cultural constructs.
Artist: Augustus Rivers
2021
Red. All red. A figure, or perhaps an absence. No face. No trace of a face. Anonymity as presence, presence as void. Just red, and space, and the assumption of form.
The 'Veiled' series by Augustus Rivers fuses traditional portraiture with modern abstraction. Subjects are adorned in rich, red garments that cascade, sometimes appearing to suspend, evoking divine or ceremonial connotations. The omission of facial features abstracts the figures into archetypes, redirecting focus from individual identity to the universal female form, the narrative's core.
Red is selected for its symbolic potency, representing power, passion, and the sacred, contrasting sharply with the figures' veiled identities and creating tension between vivid presence and obscured personality.
Rivers' work critiques identity's fluidity within societal and cultural constructs, celebrating form and color while contemplating the archetype of 'the mother'.