Genevieve Fischer

COLOR: AN EXPLORATION OF PERCEPTION, INTUITION, AND PROCESS

I embarked on my senior thesis with the intention of challenging myself. My artistic objective was to create something new that leaves a mark on the viewer. I chose to work with the phenomenology of color because it has been a theme throughout the Visual Studies major, and I was intrigued to explore the subject in greater depth in order to inform my art and expand my skillset. My goal was to understand and even reconcile the uneasy relationship between intuition and analysis regarding the use of color in art through research, personal observation, and artistic practice. My investigation focused on how and why humans react to colors as well as how these reactions can be manipulated and provoked by an artist. I have studied how science accounts for the perception of color as well as how artists and movements have understood and used it. These inquiries are mutually informing components of my development as an artist. The Visual Studies major showed me that artistic practice goes hand in hand with a sophisticated understanding of various disciplines including philosophy, art history, art theory, and the study of perception.

Much of my early experimentation and production was dominated by vivid color. I mostly explored red, yellow, and blue because of their 'superior' status as the primary colors. I worked with texture, transparency, and form to push my understanding of these colors. However, working with the absence of color emerged as the most telling investigation of color's power. The most interesting, complex, and charged color is white. This realization led me to the final stage of my process: the installation.

SECTOR C : Art Practice and Technology