'Breathing Colour' by acclaimed Dutch designer Hella Jongerius, is an exhibition that takes a deeper look at the way colour behaves, exploring shapes, materials, shadows and reflections.
The colour of an object is made tangible through its material. However, objects also absorb, reflect and echo colour, and are influenced by the surrounding colour landscape. Colours are also reflections and reverberations of light in the space: some colours reflect more strongly and intensely than others, black absorbs the most light, whereas white functions almost like a mirror in reflecting sunlight.
After more than fifteen years of colour research, Hella Jongerius (Utrecht, 1963) has designed a range of objects that show how colour responds to form, texture and changing light conditions and that demonstrate its (often-unfulfilled) potential.
In the exhibition, on show at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, from 9 June to 12 August 2018, her own work is supplemented by 150 artworks by a variety of artists, selected from the museum's collection by Jongerius and artist Mathieu Meijers. In this way, Jongerius's recent research enters into a dialogue with the works of old masters and contemporary artists, offering visitors an even more vivid experience of colour.
The exhibition questions our perception of colour and reflects upon the history of colour research.
Jongerius criticises the colour industry for its limited palette of pigments and the pursuit of colours that remain the same under all lighting conditions. The result, in her opinion, is flat, static colours.
"We select colours from colour charts or systems with the help of numbers and codes. Knowledge about the complexity and composition of colour is extremely simplified. The standardised colour-matching systems of Pantone, Dulux, RAL and others offer a wide range of hues, but they do not sing like the colours in Old Master paintings. Industry today lacks the ambition to develop recipes for intense colours", stated Jongerius. "Breathing Colour is a statement about the strength, imperfection and versatility of colour as a reaction to the flatness of the colours produced by industry".
As a designer, Jongerius is constantly looking for new ways of using the industrial production process to create products with an individual character. In 2017, she received the Sikkens Prize for her research into colour. Through her series of colour studies, Jongerius encourages discussion about one of the most fundamental aspects of design.
Photos: © Luke Hayes