Colour. Seeing Beyond Pigment
Z33, Hasselt Belgium, 8.5.-24.8.2025
Artists
Marlou Breuls
Amandine David
Ann Veronica Janssens
Tiina Pyykkinen
Heleen Sintobin
Dimitris Theocharis
Bram Vanderbeke
Curator Annelies Thoelen
Scientist María Boto Ordóñez
Scenography Woman Cave Collective
Photography Kobe Vanderzande / Tiina Pyykkinen
Support by Finnish Cultural Institut Benelux, Finnish Cultural Foundantion and Saastamoinen Foundation
Thank you for collaboration Antti Janhonen
Comissioned by Z33 vzw nad KASK/Conservatorium
Traditional chemical pigments, once the pinnacle of innovation, have given way to a second generation: bio-based pigments, made from natural ingredients. But at a time of increasing climate and ecological challenges, this approach too appears to have its limits. Structural colours, based on optical refraction of light, are a pioneering contemporary alternative. But how can we design with these fragile nanostructures and their eye-catching iridescent palette?
Colour. Seeing Beyond Pigment presents a group of artists and designers experimenting with this new colour technique in collaboration with Laboratorium (Biolab for Art, Design and Biotechnology of KASK & Conservatory in Ghent). This exhibition merges scientific research, a new technology and societal challenges with liberate artistic experimentation. It results in new aesthetic and ecological possibilities to literally grasp from all angles.
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With Disguised Messages, Tiina Pyykkinen creates an intriguing series of panels that challenge viewers to look at space, time and their own perception in new ways. These works, crafted on mirrored steel, seem to be in constant motion, changing depending on light and viewing angle. They invite interaction: it is an encounter in which space and the viewer merge and are literally reflected in the paintings. Thus Pyykkinen subverts the traditional painting. What seems fixed turns out to be in constant flux. The static image becomes temporary and context-specific. The artist explores how to create an almost “moving image” in which memory, time and perception are intertwined.
Pyykkinen's work is composed of multiple layers that together create new ways of seeing. It is based on shadow images, inspired by fleeting patterns of trees and light. They refer to everyday elements such as a house or shared spaces. The artist applies them to the surface with glue. In the making process, the applied glue is partially removed again, revealing the mirrored steel structure again. Then the colored mirrored surfaces reflect the environment and the iridescent colors are constantly changing with movement and light.
The result is a surface in which patterns of light and color alternate and merge, an interplay of revealing and concealing. These layers capture both the fleeting present and the enduring past. The seemingly mundane becomes distorted into something strange and elusive, evoking an uncanny atmosphere. They acquire an ambiguous status: monochrome and multichrome, stable and elusive. As a result, the works become living portraits of change.
Disguised Messages invites visitors to look beyond the visual surface and become aware of their own role in experiencing art. Pyykkinen sees in her work a mirror of our human existence: layered and constantly changing. The work not only literally reflects the viewer, but also asks for introspection on how perspectives color our view of the world. Through her choice of materials, Pyykkinen challenges us to understand the world as a complex interplay of layers: physical, social and metaphorical. Drifting Dissonance offers a moment of contemplation, where we not only look, but are seen and can reconsider our place in a multi-layered reality.
