CHROMATIC ALCHEMY

Chromatic Alchemy is an exploratory project on natural pigments and their possible uses in reproductive printing of photography, with several parts connected to it.

Within the project, people all over the world that work with natural color, for example dyers, color makers or pigment extractors, have been contacted and asked to send a material or pigment that they feel connected to; all people that were found during the search were added to an interactive online map, the Pigment Swap Map, which is freely accessible and editable, and serves as a platform to connect and exchange with like-minded people. In total, six people send one or several materials or finished pigments, as well as a photo of the pigment's origin or surroundings. I then extracted the pigment from the raw materials, and printed the different photos with the corresponding pigment, using a homemade watercolor medium and the screen-printing method; these are the main prints of the project. The six people that did send a material or pigment were documented in the author's book, the Pigment Compendium, which also forms part of the installation, and further explains the extraction process of lake pigments. Additionally, the installation includes pigment samples in the form of watercolor dot cards, along with a "painting corner" to try out the natural pigments.

The aim of Chromatic Alchemy is to thematize the disenchantment and current re-enchantment of society, and to bring old and alchemist practices into a new and modern light. It plays on the connection of humans and nature, as well as the origin of color and the development of purely natural pigments into the artificial colors we are used to seeing today. Additionally, the search for the smallest compound of color, which, in the sense of painting and printing, are pigments, is a fascinating and never-ending one; for this reason, the theoretical and practical processes used during the course of this project are just as, if not more, important than the final prints, and make up a large part of the final installation.