II
Merleau-Ponty, Cézanne, Matisse and Gilbert-Rolfe think of color as a
way to access some essence that, they claim, is impossible to do so in another
way. However, it must be asked whether this ‘essence’ exists. Is
the concept of femininity something that exists in the world, or is it something
that we have constructed and imposed on the world? If Gilbert-Rolfe can dismiss
the idea of masculinity as no longer relevant, then why does he still hold on
to a notion of femininity?(9.) Even if there is an ‘essence’ that
surely exists in the world, such as death and light and the sky, is the association
to a color intrinsic to that thing or it merely imposed upon it? Phenomenology
claims that the color and the thing cannot be separated, but by examining the
signification that color has, cracks emerge in the phenomenological project.
We begin to understand that nothing in the world has inherent meaning, that
all meaning is mediated, imposed on objects by our prior knowledge and culture.
When we begin to look across either time or cultures it becomes clear that affective
response to color is not universal. We know that little boys used to be dressed
in pink not 100 years ago, in Asia white not black is the color of death, and
blue has been associated with little boys, royal blood and cold temperature.
In other words, colors do not hold singular pre-determined, unmediated affective
meaning. Our response to color is thoroughly mediated by discourse, prior knowledge
and culture. If it were not, then all cultures would wear either black or white
to funerals, would only associate ‘sky’ with the color blue and
would not think of bubble gum, Pepto-Bismol and LA sunsets when confronted with
pink.
Since chemistry’s rising role in the creation of dyes and pigments the
color of our world has exploded in brightness and range of shades. Our world
is no longer constrained to its natural coloration, we now live in a Technicolor
world. Technology has created an environment where association to color has
no inherent connection to the color as it appears in the natural world. It has
allowed us to dislodge color’s intrinsic meanings and associations and
to arbitrarily assign colors to objects which have no inherent connection. For
example bubble-gum pink, “the purple pill we call Paxil,” and the
cautionary tone of fluorescent orange. The rise of artificial color has created
an environment that is separate from the natural and universal world. That is,
before the advent of color chemistry color was a property of the natural and
universal world, now that it is easily manipulated and utilized, color has become
part of the culturally specific environment and has in the process lost much
of its universality. We still associate green with nature, but we also associate
it with Astroturf, Fuji film, and artificial apple flavoring.
To assign universal meaning to a color is now a moot exercise. Each micro-environment
is colored differently, and our experience of each of these environments determine
our personal response to it. This is not a new idea, like an expert perfumier
that can distinguish the most subtle scents, fabric dyers can produce consistent
colors by being sensitive to the smallest changes in color. Our Technicolor
environment has similarly made us experts in our own fields, in our own micro-environments.
Our expertise, though, is our personal, isolated environments and experiences
that extend to the everyday. In other words, because color has been divorced
from its natural source, my associations with colors are likely not shared with
the majority of other people, even if they share my culture.
In light of this loss of universal response to color how does an artist such
as Gilbert-Rolfe who is interested in unmediated response to color operate?
There is one aspect of the phenomenological color project that can be salvaged.
We know that although the meanings of color may change over time and cultures,
colors do elicit moods or sensations in the viewer. Psychological studies suggest
that certain colors affect our emotional state of being, for example: red excites,
blue depresses, green relaxes, etc. But these responses are not associated with
concepts such as femininity, occurrences such as death nor with things such
as the sky, they are purely emotional. To properly use color in a phenomenological
manner it is only an emotional response that should be sought.
9. There are many arguments here, but perhaps the most obvious is that the concepts are each a face on the same coin, without one, the other cannot exist. Without the concept of the masculine, the feminine has no point of reference. Further, as many examples Gilbert-Rolfe gives for dismissing masculinity can as easily be found for dismissing femininity as absurd. A few that challenge the concept of femininity are Sinead O’Connor, Tank Girl, Valerie Solanas, Teena Brandon and Gertrude Stein. Martha Stewart, Pamela Anderson, and Julianne Moore in “Far and Away” take this concept in the other direction to the degree of parody that, like a World Wrestling Federation participant, makes it glaringly absurd.