Marie Lannoo

Artist explores how we see and understand colour in all its intoxicating glory.

by

While viewing Marie Lannoo’s five-year retrospective, The Architecture of Colour, I remembered a philosophically formative experience from my childhood. My older sister came home from school and asked whether we all see and experience colour in the same way. Does blue look the same to me as it does to you? Is what I call red the same colour that you call red? And if we don’t see it the same way, are each of our encounters with colour unique to ourselves? 

I believe sparking such curiosity is the primary motive behind Lannoo’s exhibition. She encourages people to explore the science behind colour – how our eyes and brains experience colour, how light creates colour, and the physical space colour requires. 

The show is divided between two gallery spaces, a unique quality of the College Art Galleries at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Housed in the original College Building, the layout provides a contemplative pause between exhibition vignettes. 

The lower gallery offers works to educate viewers on the physics and theory of colour. Through a presentation about the sizes and layers of frequencies within the visible light spectrum, Lannoo encourages greater appreciation for how light and time operate in tandem to create the colours that inspire, commemorate and stimulate us in everyday life. 

Although Lannoo, a longtime Saskatoon artist, is captivated by the philosophy and science behind colour, the beauty of the exhibition is found within her personal narratives. For instance, two 2019 works,Everything is Black in the Dark #1 and #2, are an effort to recreate particular visual experiences, such as the moment of wonderment upon opening a jewelry box.

In the first work, Lannoo uses a black Plexiglas box and diffraction grating Mylar to emulate a beautiful rainbow illuminating the dreary wall of an automotive repair shop. The second piece was inspired on a trip to Iceland, where she was overcome by the blue of a geothermal lagoon. The sculpture consists of a convex disk with layers of powdered emulsion. When exposed to a lid covered in intensely bright lights, it creates an intoxicating phosphorescent blue. 

The upper gallery holds an installation that covers a large portion of two walls and the floor with round plates painted with different variants of blue. The work depicts the colour of the Saskatoon sky every day during the summer, fall and winter, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The plates, collectively, create a field of blue. They are painted whimsically, ensuring they reflect the dynamic nature of the prairie sky. Including spring within the spectrum would have made the installation more immersive and shown the subtleties within all the seasons.

Although the two exhibition spaces differ in tone, they are linked by an element of participatory engagement. Interaction with the works is encouraged, fostering personal encounters with expanses of colour. 

The Architecture of Colour concludes with an exquisite printed card visitors can take away with them. Measuring six by nine inches, it contains Lannoo’s spectrum of blues with details noted in English and Flemish, her mother tongue. A hole in the centre is for peering out at the sky. Once again, Lannoo encourages us to open our eyes to the lights and colours that surround us.  ■

The Architecture of Colour is on view in Saskatoon at the College Art Galleries at the University of Saskatchewan from Sept. 20 to Dec. 21, 2019.

PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.

College Art Galleries

14-107 Administration Place, Mackinnon Building, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A2

306-966-4571

please enable javascript to view

Visit Website

Tues to Fri 11 am - 4 pm