“There is a soothing and a screaming for Beige; words making flesh; the hunger of decay is never sated. Why is there almost nothing to be found of Yva Lero? 'Peau d'ébène' came out in 1979 . . . I want to read it but it is in French. Bandages come in a strange colour. We want to transcend the choice of foundation . . . This is the shade of the season; there is only one season under this sun.”
- artists' text featured in the installation
Beige Dreams is an installation and photographic series commissioned by the NTU Center of Contemporary Art, Singapore as part of the exhibition The Making of An Institution in 2017. It was comprised of a photographic series of floral portraits, layered stretch-mesh fabric and vinyl lettering.
Made in counterpoint to the lush density of the tropical environment in which NTU-CCA is situated, the photographic images feature cosmetics applied to flowering plants that brings out their flesh-like qualities. An accompanying publication of the series is available through A.I. Gallery, London.
*The text in the installation is a musing on aspirations and invisibilities; the meaning of 'beige' in urban slang as well as the bizarre, colourist default-ness of the colour in a region where skin tones come in a wide spectrum. At the time of making this work, my inability to find much of the Martiniquais writer and painter Yva Lero's works online despite her cultural and historical importance highlighted deep and specific blindnesses that persists in an information- inundated age.