Die Chromatika (Neutrals)
provides an absolute psychological definition of black, white and grey. This is a continuation of Firrell’s elaborate chromatic joke started with 2020's
Die Chromatika/The Chromatika
.
Like the earlier artworks, these posters refer to the poured concrete surfaces of the Geotheanum in Dornach near Basel, Switzerland. The Goetheanum was designed by Rudolf Steiner as the headquarters of his Anthropological Society and is named in honour of Goethe and Goethean science. Both Goethe and Steiner meditated on the nature and meaning of colour.
It is impossible, of course, to attribute a finite meaning to any colour, most especially to the 'un-colours' of the neutrals. Hence the entire undertaking can be interpreted as a caprice or an entertainment. But it is also an acknowledgement of Steiner's and Geothe's work in this area.
The artist went on to write a ‘natural history’ of colour, also called
Die Chromatika/The Chromatika,
in support of his playful 'theories' of each colour’s definitive meaning.
In the 1970s, the German painter Gerhardt Richter (b. 1932) produced all-grey paintings in celebration of the inherent non-ness of grey. Richter said, ‘Grey is the epitome of non-statement. It does not trigger off feelings or associations, it is actually neither visible nor invisible. Like no other colour it is suitable for illustrating nothing.’
The French composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918) described his Nocturnes as ‘an experiment in the combinations that can be obtained from one colour – what a study in grey would be in painting’.
Unlike Richter and rather like Debussy, the artist found grey richly suggestive. Listening to Debussy, he would think of light on grey water or scintillations of grey seen against the light:
They see Paris for the first time. The city. The grey river splintered with light, divided by its islands, constrained by the graphite proximity of its banks.
According to the colour historian Eva Heller, ‘Grey is neither warm nor cold, neither material nor spiritual. With grey, nothing seems to be decided.’
Perhaps this is why anything unclear or uncertain is said to occupy a grey area and unregulated and untaxed economic activity - almost anything sold or done for cash - is described as the grey economy (in contrast to the starkly exploitative and categorically illegal black market).
Around 10.30pm on 19 September 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were abducted by aliens in rural New Hampshire, USA.
They were driving home after a holiday in Niagara Falls when Betty saw a bright point of light in the sky. The mysterious glowing object descended suddenly towards their 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air prompting Barney to brake sharply in the middle of the highway. Betty and Barney looked up to see a huge flying saucer hovering about 80 feet above their car. Through binoculars, Barney saw humanoid figures at the saucer’s windows, wearing what sound like rather fabulous glossy black uniforms and black caps.
Barney and Betty then experienced what they described as a change in their consciousness. They reported that they emerged from this altered conscious state feeling ‘dull’ and, once they recovered from the ‘dullness’, they were unable to remember anything distinctly.
Ten days after these events, Betty started having vivid dreams, which brought back some of her greyed-out memories. Two small men forced her to walk in a forest at night. They were wearing the glossy black uniforms and black caps originally described by Barney. He, too, was in the forest and appeared to be in a trance-like state, accompanied by other members of the alien crew. Betty described the aliens as about five feet tall with dark eyes, prominent noses and most significantly of all for our purposes, grey skin.
The artist writes:
For me, grey is always difficult to seize hold of. It is a misty enigma between the emphatic certainties of black and white. Grey is a nowhere space inhabited by no one. Grey is like being half-conscious of something, which is itself a nonsense, a state as vague as grey.
Für mich ist das Grau immer schwer zu fassen. Grau ist ein nebliges Rätsel zwischen der einfühlsamen Gewissheit von Schwarz und Weiss. Es ist ein Niemandsland, das von keinem bewohnt ist. Grau ist, sich einer Sache halbbewusst zu sein, eher eine Unsinnigkeit, ein Bewusstsein so vage wie grau.
