I’ve personally been quite cautious in the use of colour. In my artistic work I have tended to focus on form first, and I almost invariably desaturate colour. I have moved towards subdued monotones or subdued hues in general. I think, on reflection, that this is largely due to the notion that colour in an image can be quite demanding on the viewer. It demands attention, often at the cost of other aesthetic aspects. I prefer calmness over attention; longevity over intensity. But, in this brand-new series, I throw caution into the wind and I turn to face colour directly in an attempt to both understand and to converse with it. Colour is always there in our lives but, I'd argue that it is seldom looked into or critiqued.
In this first phase of this project I roughly go around the colour wheel; starting with Blue and finish with purple, along with the addition of black and white. Colour could of course be generated directly out of photoshop onto a page without any form at all, but this is not just a colour project but also a photography project. I was not interested in figuration per se, so all images are necessarily abstractions, leaving only colour and abstract forms for you to consider. My usual hunting ground, in the barren landscapes of the Arabian desert is not the place to explore the breath of colour, so instead I took my camera to convenient, man-made, curated and cultivated areas. It is after all, this built environment that colour is so explicitly produced to influence us in our daily lives.
Colour is in one important sense, a technology. In nature, it is used in a way that has evolved so that the habitat and species live within their environment with often advantages and disadvantages being attributed and spread evenly throughout the species. But now, in ‘modern times’ mans’ built world coopts colour to frame us and to influence us. For example: red alert signs; black and yellow warnings, white for cleanliness in hospitals etc. It is no happenstance that certain companies deploy certain colours e.g. orange as down to earth and fairness, or to think or use our belief in green = natures growth when buying organic products, or to see how colours are depicted in National flags or Sport team uniform colours, or the movies etc. Colours frame us; and in my view, we need to try to get past these colour-psychological cliches; symbolism etc.
