A Brief History of colour

Since the beginning of the world and humankind, light has been appearing continually, causing clear visibility, plenty of life, and especially numerous colours we see in the air. According to Newton’s observation, the way we see colour is because objects reflect one from many colours through our eyes and brain. Also, in each colour, we can receive many degrees of it called ‘Chroma’.

Chroma /ˈkrəʊmə/ means the degree to which a colour is pure or strong, or the fact that it is pure or strong. It is derived from a Greek word ‘χρῶμα’ or ‘khrôma’ which means surface of the body, skin, colour of the skin, colour. The word ‘chroma’ is basically found in such words as chromosome, chromatic, monochrome, etc., and all words are related to colour.

Besides the word, chroma or colour can affect human's emotions, especially in artworks; it can persuade us to feel what the painter or designer wants to convey. For example, if the painter wants to present purity, innocence or cleanliness, they’re gonna paint mostly in white. Or if they want to present power, strength, or death, they’re gonna use black as a major colour. Moreover, the use of colours has appeared in many cultures around the world; in the era of Ancient Egypt, they used natural pigments for painting faces, pyramid walls and even coffins. You might see many of the Ancient Greek — and Roman — statues in white, but did you know during their time, the statues were covered in multiple colours? Also in Indian culture, they celebrate the ‘Holi Festival’ with colourful powders for the sake of goodness above evil. As you can see, colours are strongly related to human life in many dimensions. Yet, we have developed the use of colours, we found the concept of colours in the light, and we have been using colours to symbolise something, such as logos, movies, and even social movements.

During 28^th June 1969, the most well-known uprising took place at the Stonewall Inn (later used as the name of the riots), NYC. This was one of a few places for gay people to freely express who they were since they had been socially suppressed for a long time. At that night, police raided on gay people in the bar as usual, but the reaction was different; they fought the police back causing the riots on fire. The incident, consequently, started massive waves in LGBTQ+ community as a revolution for social equality around the world. Afterwards, we have celebrated June as the month of Pride in remembrance of all the braves at the bar that night. Then Gilbert Baker, an artist, activist, and openly gay military veteran, created a rainbow flag called ‘Pride Flag’ to represent the diversity in the gay community. It was inspired by the Wizard of Oz’s classic song Over the Rainbow and has been used until now.

PULSE Chroma 2022 - Art Exhibition Celebrating Diversity, Inclusivity and Social Well-being

From the story explained above, this year PULSE Social Enterprise is excited to celebrate Pride by launching PULSE Chroma 2022 - Art Exhibition Celebrating Diversity, Inclusivity and Social Well-being from 1^st June – 31^st August 2022 (3 months). The exhibition celebrates DiverCity (sic) and inclusivity; Every one of us is loved, unique, and respected equally without regards to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies that make us who we are and form the values of PULSE.

The event consists of exhibitions, parties and health promotion. The exhibitions will be held at our 6 galleries and will display various types of works, including photography, painting, digital arts, sculpture, light installation, and so on. You will see works of art from rising-star to well-known artists, for example, photographs from Pui—Surachai Saengsuwan, paintings from Oat Montien, digital arts from Ana Marie Pido and I-Jud, ceramic dog sculptures from Tew—Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch. All of the works are for sale at PULSE Galleries.

In addition to the exhibition, PULSE will be hosting multiple events including opening and closing parties and gallery hopping. More information will be announced soon, please stay tuned for the biggest event of the year and celebrate Pride together with us.

Let’s be proud and spread colours all over the town!

References

www.artsy.net/article/the-art-genome-project-a-brief-history-of-color-in-art 

https://caltechletters.org/science/history-of-color-1 

www.etymonline.com/word/chroma#etymonline_v_28083 

www.history.com/news/stonewall-riots-timeline 

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/chroma?q=chroma

www.volvogroup.com/en/news-and-media/news/2021/jun/lgbtq-pride-flags-and-what-they-stand-for.html