Colourfield
Co-created with artist Eloise Moody, 2018
Participatory work commissioned by Shrinking Space & Kew Gardens, Wakehurst
Sponsored by Winsor & Newton
Over eight summer evenings we gave view-finders to visitors at Kew Wakehurst, and asked them to describe specific colours without using existing colour names. Visitors followed a site route, finishing at our Colourfield Lab where we collected thousands of descriptions in a living archive. Here we invited visitors to pick out others’ descriptions and use the lab’s paint stations to turn them into colour swatches, creating a new field of colour.
Before setting up our lab, we spent time with Kew scientists exploring their interest in pigment, light and colour perception. Colourfield became a celebration of individual perception and interpretation, and we wanted it to encourage closer engagement with landscape and environment.
Each description and responding colour swatch was catalogued and can be re-matched if needed. They offer a library of readings affected by light, temperature, and scent, created during a week of especially variable weather. Colourfield descriptions and swatches were exhibited at Orleans House Gallery in 2021, as part of the group exhibition Remember the Future.
