Contemporary color is abstract. Unlike color for the medieval painter, color is no longer derived directly from specific locations or named in reference to physical materials. Many contemporary colors do not emerge from the natural world at all, and are instead produced by synthetic chemistry or conjured up by digital displays.

Our current relationship between colors and their names reflects this. PANTONE, for example, uses two color naming systems in parallel: a precise numerical system used in practice by designers; and a clever set of color names for consumers. “Rose Quartz” and “Living Coral,” PANTONE’s Color of the Year selections from 2016 and 2019, are far more suggestive and loaded than their respective PANTONE codes: Pantone 13-1520 or Pantone 16-1546.

COLOR-NAME-ZOOM is an investigation into the relationship between pure color and the act of naming. A series of colors appear on-screen, superimposed with a name assigned to that color by one of many paint corporations. The resulting moving-image is a trip through a vast sea of language, naming, marketing, and stealthy projection of gender, identity, and other associations onto color.

Moving-image Installation | Installed at Whitespace Gallery | Atlanta, GA

2 Minutes, 23 Seconds (looped)

2020/2025