Research Catalogue

works

• Q & I (09/07/2015)
  Art object: Video, artist(s)/author(s): Salome Egger, Salome Egger
  Who am I? What colours do I have? When do I show which colour, which personal aspect? Such questions are at the core of the performance Q & I. Q & I relates the knitted metameric artworks and the self to one-another, and thereby draws a metaphorical parallel between colour perception and perception of the self; between the self and the physical colour phenomenon known as metamerism. Pastoureau (2014, p.9) asserts that ‘for the historian – as for the sociologist or the anthropologist – color is defined first as a social phenomenon’; ‘it is the society that “makes” the color, that gives its definitions and meaning, that constructs its codes and values, that organizes its uses and determines its stakes’. Does this mean that society is also ‘making’ our colours and defining us? Q & I plays with the story of our self and illuminates these social and psychological aspects; the ‘metamerising’ self is set, figuratively speaking, in the context of metameric colour perceptions.
• green-green-green (10/07/2014)
  Art object: Video, artist(s)/author(s): Salome Egger, Salome Egger
  The performance green-green-green explores the physical colour phenomenon called metamerism, where a colour pair looks unicoloured in a given light, but may appear different in a changed light situation. It is a play of colour, light and perception. The performer, in a metameric dress, moves around a room, switching on and off various lamps, positioning herself consciously in the differing light situations, each of which triggers a subtle colour change in the dress. During the performance, the olive green dress changes its appearance, from unicolour, to two-coloured, to three-coloured. The dress can be experienced again and again in different ways, as the different shades are all inherent in the material. In this piece, text encounters textile. Varying texts set the phenomenon in the context of light, colour and perception. Concurrently, the dress communicates with the light sources present in the room. Some texts are citations of various thinkers, others personal memories. In this way the performance alters perception and explores philosophical and cultural questions, offering audiences an affective and aesthetic experience of light and colour.
• unravel wittgenstein (15/01/2016)
  Art object: Video, artist(s)/author(s): Salome Egger, Salome Egger
  The performance unravel wittgenstein, a sophisticated colour and language game, knits together both literal and metaphorical threads. Two continuous yarn-plies build the unicolour fabric of the artwork involved in the performance. In contrast to these threads, the texture of Wittgenstein’s remarks is not linear. The performance juxtaposes the fragmented threads of the text with the continuity of the threads comprising the artwork. The piece combines the performative unravelling of the text with the unravelling of the artwork itself through an act of deconstructive ‘craft’. By deconstructing this particular text, as well as the artwork, the performance also deconstructs the phenomenon of metamerism. The performance, after unravelling the unicolour artwork, highlights the two threads that had made it, revealing their two colours. This strategy is designed to reposition the unwanted metamerism in a different light, allowing the negatively perceived physical colour phenomenon to offer an aesthetically beautiful experience.