I thought a bit about colour with the last project in terms of trying to 'map' my location/orientation, using colours around me, extracted from the film photography.
So I have been reading this book, COLOUR (Documents of Contemporary Art- a favourite series of mine) and a few of the writings were quite useful, and un-useful and are quite conflicting with each, and have made me quite confused...
NUMBER 1. Le Corbusier.
Argues that colour is subordinate to form.
'Painting is a question of architecture, and therefore volume is its means. In the expression of volume, colour is a perilous agent; often it destroys or disorganises volume because the intrinsic properties of colour are very different.'
FORM should come first, and no colour is needed (well, in architecture, but no-doubt this applies to much of his life-ideas). In THE LAW OF RIPOLIN he goes on to suggest that all our houses/spaces should be doused with a coat of WHITEWASH.
'When you are surrounded with shadows and dark corners you are at home only as far as the hazy edges of darkness your eyes cannot penetrate. You are not a master in your own house.'
I felt a little sad reading this, as I am partial to a white space or two, but to suggest to rid the house of dark corners and such, seems a little strange, and makes me think about THE POETICS OF SPACE, where Gaston Bachelard seems to think the nooks and crannies, nests, hidden spaces in our wardrobes and chests are beautifully necessary; its all about the possibility of what is hidden in these spaces, and it's crucial, and, we enjoy these spaces.
NUMBER 2.- Colour is LIGHT
Roland Barthes- Camera Lucida: I found this particularly interesting...
'It seems that in Latin 'photograph' would be said 'imago lucis opera expressa'; which is to say: image revealed, 'extracted', 'mounted', 'expressed' by the action of light'.
I have always been unsure and unnerved/confused by the notion, however scientific, that colour is only light, and I also find this quite sad, until I read a small extract by Tacita Dean, who also feels the same about the colour=light situation.
'Learning that colour is a fiction of light is one of the primary shocks of growing up: that this hitherto deeply physical thing is just a reflection and that nothing can keep its colour under the cover of darkness [makes me think to Le Corb.] are monstrous things to understand, even for my adult mind.
Yet there is something about colour's frailty at it's twilight moment of oblivion that also brings out its magnificence...The sky hangs like heavy weave tapestry...Detail is secondary and focus lost...The dullest window glows with evanescent glory and even streetlights dominate with an intensity normally unknown to them...'
This is possibly why I like film photography and the colours from them; everything looks particularly good, and equally different, in different LIGHT conditions and times of day, which in some ways makes things look very strange, temporal and unreal. I think 'the everyday' makes an appearance to my thought processes here i.e the streetlights that are mentioned...Tacita dean definitely put a poetical spin on colour, and made me less confused about my approach to it... as did NUMBER 3.
NUMBER 3.- DONT THINK ABOUT COLOUR (?)
I don't think it would be right if I were to escape thinking about Rachel Whiteread at least once in every project.
'When I was seven, I was allowed to choose the colours for my bedroom. Free will. 'Lilac and orange' was my chosen colour scheme, I loved it. When I was fourteen I changed to dark blue and white. Ever since then I have worked in white rooms.'
She goes on to comment how colour is CONFUSING and how colour is really just a product of a chance choice of materials, and colour naturally moves in through a choice of these mediums and forms she creates, 'Collage-thats good for using other peoples colour decisions. Does that mean I have been let of the hook.'
This made me think about my colour-use and that maybe I shouldn't see It as a way of reflecting place, because it is just there, and a photograph (I have once mentioned) shows one of the many 'limitations of the visual' especially concerning place, so what it really should concern is maybe actions? So I have a colour palette to work with, but it is not and cannot be the sole representation of a place, or what I come to think about. Maybe.
The COLOUR BOOK editor itself, commented how he purposefully neglected to contain ideas about effects of colour in the home or 'harmonious use of colours in such enviroments' because he sees it as less interesting to other elements about colour...
'I love colour but there are too many decisions to make'. RW. Agreed.
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