Iskandar Blue

At the National Gallery of Singapore, I came across the works of Iskandar Jalil - master potter/ceramist, who dedicated many decades of his life to the craft. His clay ceramics were on display in a fluid, easy to walk through and extremely viewer friendly gallery space. There were more than 150 pieces on display and each one had a quirky twist to it. Fresh, quirky and fascinating, Jalil's works are inspired by philosophies from across continents - especially the beauty in imperfection and transience of wabi sabi. Influenced and inspired by stories from Scandinavia, Japan, South East Asia, Middle East and more, his work was simply awesome.

And the one thing that stood out for me, apart from the above mentioned awesomeness - was the special Blue Glaze that seemed to be a recurring element in his creative works - apparently referred to as the 'Iskandar Blue'.

Iskandar Blue - quirky and interesting, reminded me of some Persian/North African stories for some strange reason, full of life, bold and confident, and with a tinge of 'don't take life so seriously' attitude.

A sneak peek at some of the exhibits:

Titled: That's the way A-ha A-ha (image courtesy: straitstimes.com)

Some more that I found really interesting:

Titled: Mother & Child

Titled: 3 Gundus ('gundu' means 'silly' in colloquial Malay)

India goes Madder this year.

Asian Paints Colour Next 2016 has named the Colour of the Year for 2016 as the Madder Red.
(the name is derived from the plant which is a common source of the pigment red)

A nuanced version of the Pantone Colour of the Year for 2015 - Marsala Red?

Madder is different from Marsala.
I love Madder for its boldness, not just in the name :)
Marsala was boring. Madder is powerful.


The full pdf is available here, check it out. It has got some interesting colour trends:
http://site.asianpaints.com/colournext/assets/pdf/lookbook_2016.pdf

The Law of Ripolin

I was reading excerpts from a book called Chromophobia, by David Batchelor - and I was quite appalled by the basic argument. That Colour itself is a symbol of contamination!

A lot of people seemed to have argued for this thought. Colour has been associated with everything impure - with vulgarity, with superficiality, with the cosmetic, with loose character. Colourful women wearing loud clothes and make up, are considered to be the opposite of chaste. Colour as adornment - jewellery, costume, decoration - is a sign of ego, of vanity, of wanting to show off. Colour apparently is immoral.

Kant says colour can at best be a charmer, but it is not the core of beauty or aesthetics. Huxley said he saw colours come alive after he opened the Doors of Perception with the drug intake. Le Corbusier says form comes first, colour is insignificant. He goes so far to say that every house should be 'whitewashed' (cleansed) with a coating of white Ripolin paint (he has termed this as the Law of Ripolin).

White, plain white, to be clean. To symbolise simplicity and morality.

Purity.