Colour Matching The Sunrise
The video work Colour Matching Sunrise (2021) (Fig. 15), references Francis Alÿs' Color Matching (2016). Quoting Alÿs' simple artistic gesture of colour mixing to connect with the landscape around him, I address my kinship with the sunrise at Bongin Bongin (Mona Vale) beach on the morning of International Earth Day, April 22nd, 2021. The 15-minute video filmed on my iPhone shows the colour values of the sea and sky rapidly mixed in oil paint on a palette keeping pace with the changing atmosphere. The sound of the paintbrush and knife rubbing on the palette can be heard while the waves crash and recede like a breathing cycle. The video shows light emanating from the sky, flashing off the palette knife and bathing the scene in a warm glow.
My close attention to the colours and sounds of the landscape and, the sensation on my skin of increasing warmth (as the sun rose), gave rise to a feeling of embodied entanglement with the sunrise. If I consider that the sunrise communicates with light and colour, then its interaction with me is playful, and a form of self-actualising agency is perceptible. The encounter revealed that thinking and feeling in unison with the landscape can elucidate a kinship relationship that respects the agency of more-than-human entities, such as a sunrise.