The energetic shock of yellow was out in full force last night. We welcomed at least 80 students, staff, and friends to a PV finale on Thursday evening. Karen Wood had made yellow striped bandannas marking out the quadruplet who would descend upon her red black and white tape installation to rip it up and down, removing it from the walls (video here). It was a very fun way to end the project with our visitors.
I’d like to think Karen’s invitation gave our visitors the chance to experience art work as a moving thing not a fixed point in time and space.
An ending A beginning Word seeds scattered to the wind – thank you Karen @kbwoodnews for the playful invite To set the double yellows free to fly with us / me Grinning Gesticulating Prancing new lines across the floor Circling @kz1y19 to talk about inside/outside Wearing old lines That lifted us up up and dragged us down down down Like birds on the thermals – The excitement in the air breathed in invigorates me too and still it’s memory fresh the vision new
Trace Maija re-dressed in tape, modelling ‘wall art’ A five second action
Karen Wood installing her work at Spitlefields Studios (London) for the Urban Rural Exchange exhibition this month
A depth to dive into A shadow, a black. Spaces to skid in with glee Hidden from view A secret me. Behind my eyelids An inner me.
A shock of gold A beam of splendour A heart-lifting brightness An etheral sun-smile Beaming from the heart of me “I am”.
Aglow Aloft in the ceiling this painting beams down on me Dripping tendrils of gold on the floor Painting the lines to dance with Borders to investigate Blocks of view with which to Orientate.
I see myself in it; There is an order and a wildness in this one Karen I said to you as soon as I saw it This is my favourite yet Not just because yellow has that effect on me But because it is balanced on the edge of vision.
Dear Karen,
I wrote this word flow for you, in response to your painting. As you know I have mentioned that yellow is usually my favourite colour in any situation that a favourite may be stated. Not to use in my palette per say, but to feel. Yellow feels good.
I have been exploring tri-colour symbolism for a while now, (red-black-white) and was rather delighted when I discovered yellow is often the fourth colour to emerge in any language according to linguists Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. Da Silva writes:
Specifically, they found that if a given language contains only two color terms, these refer to white and black. But if a language contains three terms, then it contains (in addition to the previous ones) a word for red. And so on and so forth concerning—in the following order—green or yellow, then blue, then brown, and finally purple, pink, orange, and gray.
I shared this discovery with Andy Jones last spring when he shared his maps with us at a CAS Artists CRIT and I noticed he is using the same primary colours to represent his own symbolic language.
I am really tickled by the idea that in language, these colours emerge first. Perhaps that makes them good tools for finding our own languages. In your case, with a colour palette taken from the roads of London, it occurs to me as if for the first time that you are picking up the symbolic visual language of the road system (a recognised cultural language of instruction) and dissenting (deviating) from the traditional interpretation. Your dissent is saying there is so many more ways that you can move in these spaces, not only that, you have created a visual language to express it and which others might learn to read.
In my case, I am not quite sure I have the words yet for the terrain of my cultural deviation, so I instead leave you with this:
The use of yellow here is in part inspired by your painting. In this digital drawing my impression of your painting merges with an encounter with Rapunzle (who I saw had dissented by chopping off her golden hair — an act of defiance). See my recent blog post ‘the first telling’ (of ‘The Woman with No Hair’) to decode what the red box and the gold lines represent (or devise your own meaning).
Since Susan Merrick took photos of me on Tuesday, my digital sketchbook has exploded with images. Like your fast manipulation of electrical tape, digital tools have a useful ability to keep up with my thoughts as I test out ideas.
