Amy DiPlacido
Color associations in our landscape and interiors are a resource to ground one’s present location, and that by experiencing space at such rapid impact, we are no longer able to digest pure color. It is my goal to create a rich perceptual experience, to heighten both mood and atmosphere, similar to the Abstract Expressionist movement of color field painting.
The industrialization, predictability and repetition of color in our visually polluted skyline have made us literally lose sight of colors’ wholeness. It is for these reasons that I explore the purity of pigmentation- I seek a visual rebuttal to our dense landscape, challenging the viewer’s eye to meditate upon an expanse of perfection.
It is the cultural phenomena of how human nature adjusts to new locations that motivates my proposal for The Residency at Art 342. I would like to utilize location to create more color-based art; I want to convey physical coordinates through hand-dyed fabrics, in an attempt to match colors that appear in the natural environment. This process can be executed by literally utilizing locally collected plant matter in the dye bath, or by using synthetic dye to then mix color from memory. I would like to dye yardage of cotton and silk fabric, then stretch the color fields, creating a grid in the variety of colors I encounter in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
The dye studies can be presented to the public as a solo exhibition, which would re-contextualize based on audience and location. To engage the public, I would offer dye workshops using dyes and colors from the region. I will realize completion of this project when I have dyed and stretched at least twenty colors, so that each segment supplies a microcosm of the place I am physically engulfed. I want to remind the viewer that our present location informs us, and in turn, we have the ability to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings on a visual level.
