This post shares its title with an installation/sculpture/printwork by Stephanie Syjuco currently on view (sorry- the show ended yesterday) at the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, TX. Towards a New Theory of Color Reading is part of Syjuco’s solo exhibition, Total Fabrication. The piece consists of three offset “newspapers” in editions of 2000 displayed on palettes and free for museum visitors to take. Each of the three papers is based upon local Houston journals that cater to particular ethnic constituencies… El Dia (Spanish-Language), the Houston Forward Times (African-American), and the Manila Headline (Filipino-American).
Syjuco was inspired by the election of Barack Obama, America’s first bi-racial president, to translate newpapers geared to limited audiences into a more common language, in this case the language of color. Each newspaper was reduced to four colors: Black (newspaper info like headlines and pagination), Yellow (text), Blue (photos), and Red (advertisements). Syjuco’s color system was applied to the election day editions of each of the three papers.
Syjuco was born in the Philippines and lives and works in San Francisco, CA. According to the exhibition didactic, re-occurring themes in her work include mistranslation and misidentification, minimalist aesthetics, important historical moments, and the conventions of communication and museums.
This piece was really impressive in person- like a some kind of Bauhaus propaganda storage room. Gropius would be proud. Quite relevant and timely on any number of levels. It speaks to a hopeful impulse that communication can flourish despite cultural differences.
CAM doesn’t allow visitors to take photos (?!?) so the picture of the installation is from Syjuco’s website; the rest of the pics are from my take-home copies of the newspapers. See more of the beautiful page spreads after the jump.
Read More After the Jump Towards a New Theory of Color Reading
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