You have shared in the past that the red and pink used in your recent installations are intended to “excite rather than soothe,” can you elaborate on your relationship and history with working these colors?
Pink and reds first emerged in my work for a different series when I was thinking about what color could represent a kind of visibility of past pain. I was making work that alluded to landscape and I kept thinking, what color would these pieces be if the trauma of the past was absorbed by the land? I wanted a color that was not just a marker of pain, but also power. I was interested in the land not being a passive receiver, but absorbing the events, becoming radioactive, powerful, radiant, and with agency. For this installation, I am still thinking about those ideas.
I also had a studio visit a while back with my dear friend and wonderful artist Tamar Ettun, who introduced me to Baker Miller Pink, which was a Pepto Bismol pink used in the 1970s to paint the inside of prisons to “calm” those imprisoned. I like thinking that my pinks do not control or try to pacify bodies, but instead arouse, excite, and allure.
