Colour: seeing beyond pigment
Melanin as a natural alternative
Pigments are everywhere. From paints to cosmetics and clothes, from everyday objects to your food and drinks, they literally add colour to life. Unfortunately, the pigment and dye industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world. In the search for natural alternatives, Laboratorium – the biolab for art, design and biotechnology at KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent – went a long way. Here, melanin proved to be a fascinating track. In Z33, researchers, designers and artists present their results for the first time. On show from the 8th of May until 24th of August.
Melanin is found in our skin and determines our colour. But what few people know is that the pigment is also found in animals and has a very wide range of tones. Think of the wings of a butterfly or peacock feathers. Because of the structure in the wings on which light refracts, you can observe different colour tones. Can these natural solutions help us in the search for less polluting dyes? Several designers and artists got to work with this structural colour and are showing their work for the first time.
‘Inspired by nature, made by scientists’
From petri dish to design
Amandine David & Heleen Sintobin, together with scientist María Boto Ordoñez, led the research project at KASK & Conservatory and found inspiration for their work in nature.
1548 Pennae is a plumage of ceramic plates bearing the new colour melanin. Up close, you can see how each piece bears the structure of a turkey feather. This is no accidental find, but a tribute to an ancient Mayan tradition, where the turkey played an important role.
How does melanin behave on paper? You will see that discover this in Entomo Colours, a series of origami beetles based on endangered or extinct species in Flanders. Where a traditional insect collection dwells on the past, this collection tells says something about biodiversity today. Finally, with Coral Colours, they bring to life the impact of climate change on the underwater world.
‘The works ask to be touched, but every touch destroys the colour. A paradoxical beauty.’
Jewels on the wall
This is the best way to describe Ridges 1, 2 and 3 by Bram Vanderbeke. His aluminium wall sculptures show rhythmic lines and catch the light. As you move, the intensity of the colour changes, creating a play between the shape and its reflection. For her part, Belgian artist Ann Veronica Janssens is showing Future Forms of Beauty, where she manipulates transparent ribbed glass with a thin layer of synthetic melanin. She’s one of the only ones in this expo to already applies apply the this technique in her art. Finland’s Tiina Pyykkinen subverts traditional painting with Disguised Messages. Her mirrored panels are a play of revealing and concealing, where shadows of trees shine through.
Geometric connectedness
A floating kite adorns the exhibition space. The colours on its surface range from blue and purple, to orange and yellow. For this, Dimitris Theocharis was inspired by the colours of a flying flock of starlings. He based the shape on a kite from 1907 by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.
No hard peelings
Humour and alienation go hand in hand with Dutch fashion designer Marlou Breuls. Where her rubber artwork approaches a cuddly human skin, the metallic blue-green colour enhances a strange feeling. The head pins she uses to hang it give it a sinister discomfort, as if looking at a skinned human skin. The headpins she uses to hang it give it a sinister unease, as if you were looking at flayed human skin.
Participating artists and designers: Amandine David, Ann Veronica Janssens, Bram Vanderbeke, Dimitris Theocharis, Heleen Sintobin, Marlou Breuls, Tiina Pyykkinen
Curator: Annelies Thoelen
Scenography: Woman Cave Collective
In collaboration with: KASK & Conservatory (HOGENT – Howest), VUB (Sustainable Engeneering Materials Research Group) and UGent (Evolution and Optics of Nanostructures).
Laboratory, KASK & Conservatory’s biolab for art, design and biotechnology specializes in sustainable color production. The research project Ecology of Colour is developing a palette of structural color thanks to nanotechnology. Based on synthetic melanin, a color film is being developed to be applied to paper, metal, ceramics, glass, etc.
With the support of Saastamonen Foundation, Finnish Institute Benelux, Suomen Kulttuurirahasto. The research project Ecology of Colour is funded by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.
Amandine David & Heleen Sintobin. Entomo Colours. Photo (c) Laboratorium, het biolab voor kunst, design en biotechnologie van KASK & Conservatorium
Amandine David & Heleen Sintobin. Entomo Colours. Photo (c) Laboratorium, het biolab voor kunst, design en biotechnologie van KASK & Conservatorium
