Black & White Series, image by Rupert M. Loydell
THE PICTURES
STARTED TO INSTRUCT ME
1. All the Colours
I wanted all the colours to be present at once.
(Our chromatic decisions are not fully rational.)
How difficult it becomes when one
tries to get very close to the facts:
various intensification and dilutions take place,
colour is still only a beginning.
2. Monochromatic Triads
The important thing here is
a slow dance of golden lights,
the transformation of structure.
I put down my magnifying glass;
a world without colours
appears to us dead.
3. The Process
All of this is highly speculative;
there is no logical argument.
AVOID THE SYMBOLIC
AVOID THE IMAGINATIVE
Otherwise it would still be
a representation of light,
a large and expanding collage
fleeing extinction through a meadow.
4. Colour Exceeds the Word
Colour is pure thought.
Colour is a vast problem.
Intelligent beings have a language
I will not attempt to describe.
Colour has its own meaning.
(SOURCE
Colour, ed. David Batchelor)
WHITE SHADOW
a flurry of negatives
contradictory absence
the third
walking beside us
unseen
the burnt trace
of a man
absorbed by light
disintegrated
by fire
24 hour light
blue shadows
on the ice
blizzard conditions
white out (black out)
a ghost even
pitch or tarmac
poured
ready to harden
gloss sheen
absorbing light
reflecting light
true north
compass spinning
monochrome
white veils
imagined greys
layers of shadow
in the ancient church
arches and alabaster
one slit of light
one line of light
across the floor
emulsified white
chalk white
powdered dust
rice white
paper screens
starched white
no trace left
no shadow
the outline
of a man in the rain
a space
where somebody
ought to be
BODY SWERVE
(crucifix, V & A, London)
Body swerve
the pain
carved tension
angled arched
Wooden corpse
hung out to dry
seasoned
by the centuries
forgotten
story
collecting dust
in a museum
Oh the sorrow
in your eyes…
Forgotten
saviour
forgotten
salvation
Body swerve
the pain
body swerve
the past
body swerve
the passion
body swerve
the pain
—Rupert M Loydell
