Jardins Chromatiques opens in Amiens

http://www.jardinschromatiques.com

jardins chromatiques ‘isle aux fagots’ ‘

jardins chromatiques ‘port du fumier’

 

 

jardins chromatiques – port du fumier

Pouf du Vent

“Pouf du Vent” Mearz and Paul (Dictionary of colour 1930) and listed under ‘pale purplish pink’ in the Universal language and dictionary of colour names – 1955

Mearz and Paul produced a dictionary of colours in 1930 – A second edition was produced  20 years later. ~It was used mainly by mycologists to measure colour changes in fungi and other mycological studies. It has also been used in measuring colour in genetics, horticulture and botany.

The name has intrigued me ever since I read it, as it really stands out against the other, less evocative names found in the colour dictionary – I first thought it meant  Puff of Wind in English but  that’s  ‘Coup de Vent’ in French, I believe. The colour dictionaries of the 30’s and 40’s were partly created for the textile industry . So I thought it had perhaps something to do with textiles.  When I looked into Pouf ‘history’ certainly many textile and fashion descriptions came up : headdress, hairstyle, gathered up skirt or dress into a round puffy shape, It wasn’t until I realised that Mearz and Paul’s colour dictionary was mainly used by mycologists that I realised it must be for some sort of a pink puffball fungi – so i searched and found these below! 

Wolf’s Milk ( Photo by Jason Hollinger)

But it turns out its not a fungi at all, It’s a Slime Mould (?)

 Lycogala epidendrum, commonly known as wolf’s milk, groening’s slime is a cosmopolitan species of plasmodial slime mould which is often mistaken for a fungus. 

Its Cosmopolitan Slime…..Not a Puff of wind at all.

 

 

A Month in the Country

Bloomsbury wall paintings,  Berwick Nov 2013

Actually its just under 3 weeks.    A small team of us  have just started a project on the Bloomsbury wall paintings at St. Michael of all Angels at Berwick. Painted by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Quentin Bell during WWII, onto plasterboard (which had only been manufactured since 1930). Not the most stable of substrates. plasterboard is very absorbent and the constant changing interior environment  seems to have  played a big  factor in their  deterioration. There has also been previous restorations and structural changes during their relatively short lifetime. We will be documenting the previous interventions and deterioration  over the next three weeks to better understand how the deterioration is developing and why it is happening in some areas and not others. And hopefully in the near future a treatment program can be implemented to prevent further loss.

Berwick Church

Angela The Curious Goat

Church Kneelers ready for ‘Chain reaction’, Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury

Just finished these four ‘Church Kneelers’ or prayer mats for a show at the Sidney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury. Actually they were made by my Mum and her friends (experts in Tapestries, thankyou so much !). The show is a culmination of nearly two years collaborating with the Bio science dept at Kent University. The exhibition is based around the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) machine developed 30 years ago.

PCR is a process of copying DNA, amplifying specific sequences of As, Cs, Gs and Ts – the chemical alphabet that makes up the genetic code ( the names on the church kneelers). It does so by making millions of identical copies of the original ‘template’ sequence. It allows the detection and analysis of vanishingly small quantities of DNA, and in combination with a vast array of add-on technologies it is a central part of biomedical research. Applications are endless – forensic detection, disease diagnosis, food safety testing, therapeutic protein production, biotechnology, to name only a few.

The title  ‘Angela The Curious Goat’ is a way students remember  the 4 Amino Acids that make up our DNA.

Researching into Laboratory practise in the Bioscience dept I came across many  rituals that scientists use in working with a PCR machine (they can be very temperamental).

As you can see from my previous post I spend a lot of time in Churches, restoring wall paintings and  I often look at the kneelers at lunch and tea breaks and think of the thought and time that goes into making, and using them. So I felt this was perhaps an interesting way to represent how both science and religion rely on rituals and habits in their daily activities. 

I have also made a series of paintings for the show which I will post up soon . I would like visitors to the show to use the kneelers to look at the paintings but I don’t think the Gallery is going to go for  it.. shame.

Bullsh!ts

Graffiti Damage

Last week myself and my colleague went to write a condition report and make some cleaning tests at St. Judes Church in Southwark where a wall painting  behind the altar had been defaced during a break in.

The painting is by  A.E Cooper (1925) who was an assistant to John Singer Sargent and painted the  famous portrait of Winston Churchill- nice story here – https://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/1163-qprofile-for-victoryq-portrait-of-churchill-by-ae-cooper-for-sale

‘Resurrection’ by A.E.Cooper 1925

Archive research for the project has revealed an interesting image of the then Vicar posing for the Artist.

Artist and Vicar 1925

And also a very moving cutting from the Evening Standard about the other models painted for the wallpainting and the aftermath of War.

‘Widows in war memorial’, Evening Standard  1925

The Graffiti is mainly located in the central area and done in marker pen. Tests showed that it will be possible to remove it safely . Graffitied in large letters across the feet of Christ is “where are all the women?”  If the person was referring to the painting, then perhaps they should have looked better as there are 18 figures in the painting, 9 of whom are women. It is a shame they also didn’t get to see the cutting above.

They also graffitied an email address on the painting so perhaps I will email them this post in answer to their question!

Colour Library and Wittgenstein in Florence

Colour Library – Florence University September 2013

A meeting between The Colour Group of Great Britain and the Italian equivalent -Gruppo del Colori was held at Florence University last week – This was the first ever collaborative meeting.    I spoke about the  Colour Library and how it started with my first Fabrica residency and how it developed into the Portland Colour Chart  http://www.portlandcolourchart.co.uk/. I went onto speak about how language effects our perception of the world and how through  the investigation and results of these two projects  the colour terminology people are using today is being strongly influenced by paint industry names. I concluded that this ‘consumeristic’ language could be having a detrimental effect  on how we perceive colour and colours  and hence the world around us.

Over 40 people gave papers over  two packed days  on really diverse subjects – one  example being:

‘White can be transparent : Why Wittgenstein was wrong’

wittgenstein was wrong

 

 

Blue Velvet

video still – Stig Evans 2013

The hortillonages of Amiens or  “floating gardens” cover 300 hectares of the River Somme. There are  65km of small canals, and are situated right in the heart of the city. Used as  market gardens,  they have been cultivated since the Middle Ages. The Mussée du Picardie has an island that is used as an exhibition space . This is where I am showing my Video piece.

The ‘Velvet’ Video is an 8 minute piece using the swatches documented at The Toscan Velvet Factory, Amiens. The Video is being projected onto a specially produced ‘linen velvet’ screen by Toscan for the exhibition.  The swatches date back to the 1860′s and go right up until the 1960′s. They will be projected continually onto the velvet screen until September with the intention of altering the colour of the velvet screen in the area where the swatches have been projected. Its possible to see it at the Hortillonnage or in the Entrance Hall at the Mussée du Picardie –

I recommend the Hortillonnage though as its being shown on a small island and the only way to get to it is by a small boat. Very Romantic.  

A question of expectation ?

’50 Blues’ photo by Kaarina Kaikkonen

Before  this disappears into the distant past I thought i would mention the ’50 Blues’ I made for my Fabrica residency – 50 blues painted out onto panels from Lapis Lazuli to a Bic Biro.

Were you disappointed with the intensity of blue from the most expensive blue? ……….I was. The ‘Fra Angelico’ Lapis Lazuli which is  nearly £200 for 10 g’s that I used, seemed less bright  than I was expecting. I was prepared for it being slightly less bright than I was imagining or have seen in paintings in the NG . I was prepared for this as I was painting it out onto a white ground, the Old Masters would have often underpainted with a stronger and brighter blue pigments such as  Smalt or  Azurite. I was not prepared for it to be as dark. I decided to  contact the pigment suppliers in Germany (Kremer) saying the above and this is their reply below:

‘I guess it is not a question of the raw material, but of expectation. Lapis lazuli never was and never will be as intense as a synthetic Ultramarine pigment. We do offer a quality of Lapis lazuli made from Lasurite crystals (10540). This is the most intense blue you can get from natural Lapis lazuli – but it is still paler than 10530 “fra angelico” blue.’

Lapis Panel in hand

I have since been looking at the Lapis panel I painted out and the remaining pigment in its little jar and it has a  depth and subtly that all the other 49 panels do not have. Either we have lost the way to see pigments/colours  like this (are there any others?) and immediately go for the bright and garish (but surely the Old Masters would have killed for a bit of French Ultra) or is it me expecting more from 200 quids worth of blue pigment?

Geoffrey’s room

Geoffrey’s room (Dulux US )

The co – director of Fabrica got this American Dulux fan deck for me whilst out there – She matched the reference number on the American fan to  ‘Blue Seduction’ (Dulux UK); the one I have found to match best with clear blue skies.  In the states it’s called ‘Geoffrey’s room’ ! Although ‘Blue Seduction’ seems a more appropriate name if you are matching it to the sky.

As our perception of the world is defined by  language,  could this  mean that the Americans will see the sky as a some giant (play?) room – and who is Geoffrey anyway ? and how come he gets the biggest room?

blue seduction (Dulux UK)

All the blue tea in China

Mug

PRUSSIAN BLUE IN TEA !

 In the 19th Century the Chinese put Prussian Blue in the tea they exported to us because we liked it !

This is an extract from “Journey to the Tea Countries of China”  by Robert Fortune, 1852.

“One day an English gentleman from Shanghai being in conversation with some Chinese from the green tea country, asked them what reasons they had for dyeing the tea, and whether it would not be better without undergoing this process. They acknowledged that tea was much better when prepared without having any such ingredients mixed with it, and that they never drank dyed teas themselves but justly remarked that, as foreigners seemed to prefer having a mixture of Prussian Blue and gypsum with their tea, to make it look uniform and pretty, and as these ingredients were cheap enough, the Chinese had no objection to supply them, especially as such teas always fetched a higher price!’

He goes onto find out how much Prussian blue goes into the tea and works out that in every hundred  pounds of coloured tea consumed in England and America the consumer actually drinks more than half a pound of Prussian blue and Gypsum.  Great if you wanted to get rid of some unwanted radiation ! Perhaps they could have given it to the ‘Radium Girls’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls