Malachite and Burnt Umber
(in collaboration with Inch Chua)
Exhibition: There are Flowers in the Morning Mist
Supperhouse, Singapore
17 December 2022 to 03 February 2023

Malachite (C + Cu + H + O), 20 x 20 x 5 cm, 2022 

Burnt Umber (Fe + Mn + Be), 30 x 11 x 6 cm, 2023 

 

Malachite and Burnt Umber are derivations of a larger work – The E le men tal In ter ludes (2008-2010) by Hazel Lim where she utilises the periodic table to dismantle the semiotics of colours. 

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Referencing painting pigments which are made up of alchemical elements, she charts the properties of the elements and designed poems for them - each following a constructed meter of 4 lines x 8 syllables that are contained in the pages of the origami books. One is then able to discern the meaning of the colour, not by the visual representation of the named colour as one is familiar with, but rather through the beat and the rhythm of the broken words, and through the spoken word accompaniments by Inch Chua

 

Through this exercise of disassociating the visuality of the colour from its name, Hazel intends for the colours to be freed of its meanings, and to find new ways of redefining itself. 

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