"The not so black and white about black" (first project)

"The not so black and white about black"

Chalk, leather, high gloss paint, wood, hardware

This piece was an exploration in my fascination with the color black.  I tried to address the color and its textural manifestations without using or alluding to its connotations and symbolic uses.  For example, I didn't want the work to immediately reference darkness, mourning, elegance, evilness, nighttime, death, or any other association.  I chose the rectangle as a slight reference to minimalist art and for its simplicity in form to try and avoid the other implications of meaning that a different shape would cause.  I choose to put legs on the rectangular form to have the work speak about staging and framing that exists in art, theatre, and music.  The stage interests me in relation to this work because it is object that drastically affects the view of the subject but it is also secondary to the subject.  In most cases the notion of frames and stages exist in this realm of false nonexistence where in the viewer must pretend these objects are not there.  Functioning like a pair of glasses that helps the viewer experience work, or music, or acting, but is supposed to be backgrounded.  Stages and frames are painted black to blend into shadows and not command attention but black in other manifestations like black and white photography or black and white abstract expressionist paintings commands the highest level of attention. 

The chalk came from previous idea in the life of this work where I was going to line the inside of a rectangular wooden box with pure black pigment, thinking that the pigment would absorb all light and the viewer would experience the rectangle as a closed form when it actually wasn't.  It would be a stage where there actually was no stage.  This however did not work because the pigment still reflected light and the corners were still visible and apparent.  Then I thought the chalk could be a "subject" on the pseudo stage.  A small perfectly round pile of black chalk in the middle of a black rectangle would be visually interesting because of the textural differences and slight differences in the shadows and diffusions and reflection of light. 

I was playing around with the chalk, experimenting to find the best application for the pile, when discovered how interesting different colors of chalk look next to each other and when blended how they become the color black.  I kind of wanted to show this, so I decided to make the rainbow coming out from under the form.  The sides of the black rectangle were high gloss so at some point they were white where it reflected white light directly back into the viewer’s eyes.  I thought that the reflective ability of the high gloss would be interesting intersecting with the colored chalk because the refection of the chalk would cause the black to actually be the reflected colors and not black at all. 

The viewers’ critique of the work was that there were design-like elements that seemed superfluous and that the work was slightly dull or unexciting.  I agree with the designerly commentary because the colored chalk in a perfect line in a rainbow did take on that feel.  The dullness comment was something I slightly feared because the simplicity and overuse of the rectangular from has danger of putting work in an unexciting realm.  Also my interest in the color black is difficult to communicate to someone who is uninterested in it.