loving colours
Lately I am increasingly fascinated by colour and its meaning in Kimono in Japan.This book is a great source source of a knowledge on the subject and it’s translated to english for us unfamiliar with Japanese. “This distinctive volume reveals a unique antique kimono collection through various delicate Japanese colors and their use in kimono.
(image Copyright: Thinkstock) We are often talking about the the colour perception in relation to tradition and culture but there are some other angles. I found this interesting article about relativity in perception of colour at the BBC website. The question is “are you really seeing that blue the way I am seeing it? Perhaps you have just learnt to call what you see “blue”, but in actual experience you are seeing nothing like the vivid, rich, blue I see. You are an imposter, calling my blue by the same name as yours, but not really seeing it the way I do. Or, even worse, perhaps I am the one seeing a pale imitation blue, while you see a blue that is infinitely richer and more splendid than mine” I think it really does not make any difference if we see the same colour but in a in the realm of philosophy it is an interesting question. Continue reading ‘Are the colours you see the same as the ones I see?’
image via luxpresso
says Damien Hirst, member of the COLOUR CHART exhibition mentioned her at Chromophilia earler, on the eve of his first major retrospective in his native Britain. He hit back at a leading critic who dismissed him as a conman and advised anyone owning his work to sell it fast.
Continue reading ‘“art is the greatest currency in the world”’
image: Ellsworth Kelly
2009 this exhibition was on i Liverpool and MOMA New York, etc, etc
I of course love to see the works there..I specially would like to be there at:
Conversations on Color: Chromophobia/Chromophilia
“In conversations moderated by Ann Temkin, curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, and organizer of the exhibition, artists and scholars explore the ways in which artists use color, whether by chance, through systems, or in the context of everyday life. With David Batchelor, artist and the author of Chromophobia, and Chris McGlinchey, conservation scientist, Department of Conservation, The Museum of Modern Art.” The website
They say about the exhibition: ”Color Chart celebrates a paradox: the lush beauty that results when contemporary artists assign color decisions to chance, readymade source, or arbitrary system. Midway through the twentieth century, long-held convictions regarding the spiritual truth or scientific validity of particular colors gave way to an excitement about color as a mass-produced and standardized commercial product.
Searching for some great colour stories I just found this exhibition by David Bathelor from 2010, specialy interesting as his book CHROMOPHOBIA is the inspiration to our name CHROMOPHILIA. and now he is borowing our name for this Rio exhibition.
Cool Hunting says: Though not quite as spectacular of a juxtapoistion as Murakami’s current show at Versailles, London-based artist and writer David Batchelor’s current exhibition Chromophilia positions his colorful sculptures in the context of the historic Paco Imperial in Rio de Janeiro this month. Once the residence to Portuguese royalty, Paco Imperial now serves as a cultural center showcasing the art work of contemporary artists. Read more at Cool Hunting
photo©chromophilia
Just read the article about pink colour and, according to Daily Mail, it is just a pigment of our imagination.
It’s the favourite of little girls the world over, associated with femininity, springtime and romance.
Yet scientists this have announced that the colour pink does not actually exist.Well it does, but only in our minds.
The trouble lies in the fact pink is a combination of red and violet, two colours, which - if you look at a rainbow - are on the opposite sides of the spectrum.It only appears pink because certain wavelengths of light are reflected while others are absorbed, quenched, by the pigments.
Therefore Pink is a reflective colour, not a transmissive colour - you can see it because the brain translates light bouncing off objects.
“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. ”
― Oscar Wilde
“Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple…”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter
The Pantone-inspired bags that appeared in Mango windows in March are but one example of Pantone’s fruitful collaborations with high-street giants. Indeed, for the same season the world-renown colour authority had already teamed up with Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo to produce a series of Pantone-themed t-shirts. The occasion to renew the collaboration for the winter season came yesterday, with the opening of the new Uniqlo flagship store on London’s Oxford Street.The whole store layout is based on colours - the ‘windows’ are right inside, and look more like installations, with garments draped around mannequins in unconventional ways, conveying an idea of colour and texture, rather than of bare and simple wearability. The mannequins are ‘encased’ in glass cylinders, one of which features a big Pantone chromo-wall (much like the one we found in Mango’s).The star product this time is the cashmere line, with crewnecks and cardigans that come in 20 official Pantone hues. “UNIQLO’s innovative retail concepts along with Continue reading ‘Pantone ventures #2′
Iconic publisher Penguin has just re-published 36 works from their catalogue, bringing back to bookstores’ front shelves some of the most interesting titles of contemporary British and American literature.
The new collection comes under the name of Penguin Celebrations and revisites the classic Penguin cover - this time with a different colour for every section. The back cover reads Light Blue for big ideas, Green for mystery, Orange for fantastic fiction, Pink for distant lands, Dark Blue for real lives, Purple for viewpoints.
After a quick research, I’ve come to the conclusion that the colour/theme pairing only tries to assure some continuity with the vintage editions - whereas at first I would have thought there was some kind of hidden symbology in the matching of green and mystery, perhaps, or purple and viewpoints. I personally cannot find any - maybe someone would like to leave a comment sparing their thoughts on the matter. Continue reading ‘Light Blue for big ideas’
Chromophilia loves colours! We have used the idea and researched the meaning and impact of colours on human beings and decided to create a design concept and a collection. Now it is ready!Inicialy this are underwear pieces in organic cotton, close-to- -skin colour- clouds- garments impregnated with COLOURS. There are also some ”one of” pieces of knitwear throws made to order. I love this “one of” part as it gives me freedom to do something I can make according to my feeling for the person that is going to own it!Valentina is preparing downloadable version of the User Manual so watch that space!it’ll be here soon. Contact us if you are interested in the collection…and it is supported by KONSTNÄRSNÄMNDEN, www.konstnarsnamnden.se/
So I finally visited Hélio Oiticica’s retrospective (The body of colour) at the Tate Modern and was happy to find exactly what I was looking for. Full colours on display: first used through the traditional medium of paint on canvas and board, and as Oiticica became more and more interested in the relation between colour and space, the pigments were applied on sculptures (or ‘Spatial reliefs’ as the artist titled them), then on assembled objects and in the shape of colour powder. In the end Oiticica gathered all his experience and came up with the series called Parangolé.
In the exhibition leaflet Ann Gallagher writes: “Oiticica reached a crucial point in his integration of colour, structure, time and space with the Parangolé series: banners, capes and tents constructed from a variety of materials, including fabric, plastic, mats, screens and ropes. He began to develop these flexible colour structures as a result of his involvement with the people of Mangueira Hill, a Rio de Janeiro shanty town, and they encouraged his immersion into the world of traditional Brazilian samba. The Parangolé, designed to be worn or carried while Continue reading ‘Colour and space’
I am totally amazed when I find articles that confirm Chromophilia theory. Thanks to Francesca, who noticed this news on BBC website, I read again that according to the researchers the preferences about colours might be based in biology, rather than culture. “A little girl’s love of all things pink may not be entirely due to marketing by clothes and toy firms say researchers. A University of Newcastle study found that women naturally opted for redder shades when given a choice”. “Writing in the journal Current Biology, experts say it may have helped women gather ripe fruit, or pick healthy mates. Most earlier studies into colour suggest a universal liking for blue, regardless of sex. This is one of the few studies that have tried to spot differences between the likes of males and females”. Continue reading ‘Why girls ‘really do prefer pink’’
‘Going green’ has become a very common expression nowadays – but who would have thought that ‘going black’ would actually be a part of that?
The way to go green today is to take very small steps that may seem insignificant, but that have great impact in the long run, especially if they become common practices. Every little way to perform our daily routines using just a little bit less energy can apparently make the world of difference. So if the colour black, or the concept of black as darkness have generally been associated to a negative symbology, when it comes to technology and energy-saving, allegedly going ‘obscure’ is the thing to do!
Or, at least, this is the theory behind Blackle, a new search engine that claims we can help the planet just by switching to a black screen, instead of sticking to the Google bright white homepage that we are all used to. Continue reading ‘Is Black the new Green?’
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