Gol Gol Layer Colour Observation #5 (GGLO#5)

GGLCO#5 continues my exploration of red pigments through experimental installations and visual autoethnographic reflections. These installations are observational studies that I began in response to an artist residency at Lake Mungo, in southwestern NSW, where I experienced a 100,000-year-old red colour exposed in the deepest geological layer. This red is the cornerstone of my comparative analysis of pigments as an exemplar of colour, examining the genealogy of red’s nature.

A significant shift in my approach to observing each red pigment was introduced in GGLCO #5. To do this, I reflected on the previous observational studies and decided that the best way to understand the palette of red pigments available to me was to interrogate them on a large scale and re-examine the poetic descriptions by nineteenth century English colour-maker, George Field. GGLCO#5 employed a more considered procedure that identified and challenged Field’s characterisations of coloured pigments on the contemporary artists’ palette today. It reconsidered the descriptions and classifications of artists’ colours since the early nineteenth century and interrogated red pigments on the contemporary artists’ palette. This observational study also presented an opportunity to examine and document the first worldwide public display of Colart’s prototypes of hybrid pigments, called cadmium-free colours.

My research became a quest to provide a deeper understanding of materiality and sensory nature of colour, so painters could engage with the alchemical creation of colours and the agency of the inherent qualities. My observational studies asked if the study of red pigments could offer a new understanding of material colour. My practice-based research aimed to provide artists with a deeper understanding of the intricacies of coloured pigments so they could make purposeful decisions about their artist’s palette. These observational studies convey my findings.

GFLCO#5 is documented in three stages: