Prompted by Derek Jarman’s “Chroma” and his seminal text on the phenomenology of color, Faye Pamintuan explores her relationship with the color orange and the different contexts it navigates throughout her life. Working in abstraction, Pamintuan surrenders control in the process of image and mark-making, which eventually led to the artist creating works while in a state similar to automatism: producing bodily movements that are not consciously controlled. The artist contemplates the birthing of images instead of carefully steering the composition. Thus, deviating from Pamintuan’s previous works where she exercised her authority to dominate a narrative in evaluating her lived experiences and constituting meta-physical areas where she can mark her control.

In “Chroma”, Jarman recommends painting slowly as he narrates a time while studying at Slade where mentors had taught him to do so; he quips that “we are a generation in hurry” and then goes on to talk about the predicament of artists in a time where bombs are anticipated to fall from the sky as one works on his canvas. Pamintuan follows this recommendation but remembers memories, places, and people where the color orange stood out. Similar to what Jarman had done in his book, except only to paint in repetitive yet spontaneous movements, Pamintuan scrutinizes the color orange asking questions about its origin and the phenomenology associated with it by recalling the times she had encountered the color.

 Jarman writes, “Where yellow dives into the red, the ripples are orange.” Pamintuan weighs in on this proposition and wrangles with lines that have become boundaries of the spaces where colors lie: our jarring understanding of presence and existence marked by ripples. And so, orange is the bridge between yellow and red. Perhaps, this middle ground is where we all live.

Curated by Gwen Bautista