COLORS Squares
Kryptonite Series
Kryptonite is a green neon color associated with the imaginary planet Krypton. A rock from Krypton reduced Superman’s powers. I perceive kryptonite as a protective color, a talisman of sorts, protection from anyone attempting to overpower. Kryptonite evens the playing field.
These color squares are part of a larger vocabulary of images. Each object is a protective device that becomes a super protector when presented in kryptonite green. The object is mounted on a color square. In the 1970’s, I began to collect paint color charts from local hardware stores. Color in my work does not necessarily identify or reinforce an object; it represents an emotion, a characteristic, a thought, a place, a relationship. The cultural pairing of color and word in color-charts is a happy synchronicity for me. The juxtaposition of an object, a color and a color title sets up a visual conversation which is sometimes contradictory or paradoxical and whose legibility is not always immediately discernable.
This current focus plays off of one paradox of contemporary life --- an overwhelming sense of vulnerability and the need for protection on both a personal and collective level.
Made in China
The found objects in these paint pieces are scrapbook decals for sports and movement related memories. Manufactured in China in exact detail, they make a dual statement about the citizens of China who handmade them and the citizens of the USA who “need” them to mark memories and achievements.
