RED:READ
One hundred origami fold books.
Can such a thing of simple beauty, with blank pages loaded only with goodwill and good intention bring hope?
RED is believed to be endowed with magical powers, to protect against fear and anxiety and to guard against illness.
RED is a symbol of love and fertility and is connected with luck and longevity, invincibility and strength.
RED encourages action and confidence, stimulates energy and symbolises joy, life and creativity.
Each red book was an affirmation of the above and was offered as a keepsake to bring good fortune for its owner. Over two days, the books gradually disappeared as visitors to the exhibition claimed each one until only an empty plinth remained, the process of which was captured in photographs
by the artist.
red is the first color that humans perceive, after black and white? It’s the color that babies see first before any other, and the first that those suffering from temporary color blindness after a brain injury start to see again. Red’s dominance is even reflected in how colors are defined: although different societies developed their names for colors at different times and in different ways, almost all of them named them in the same order. With only a few exceptions, the order of labelling colors was generally black first, white second, red third, and then green, yellow and blue.
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-secret-history-of-the-color-red/-wXxao99SLXVKg?hl=en
humans, supposedly much like bulls, have had strong feelings about the color red for thousands of years. Over time, red has come to symbolize power, love, vigor, and beauty
Stone Age hunters and gatherers ground up red clay to make body paint. Another use was protection in the afterlife: in the Paleolithic period people buried their dead with red powder in order to ward off evil spirits (or potentially neutralize odors).
Red is the the color of our bloods and our hearts, and has symbolized love and fidelity in cultures across the world for centuries. Some even consider wearing red jewelry and accessories as one way to get ahead of the romance game. This necklace from the 13th century BCE is made with red carnelian beads and the gold central spacer features the image of the Goddess Hathor, the goddess of love and joy. Red is also a prominent color found at weddings, from Roman times when brides wore red shawls to warrant love and fidelity, to China today where red still brings good luck at weddings. Chinese brides wear red wedding dresses, are carried to their weddings on red litters, walk on a red carpet down the aisle, and are kissed under a red veil. The couple also receive red eggs as gifts upon the birth of their first child!
the pigment they used for the bright red, vermillion, was derived from the mineral cinnabar: a common ore of the highly-toxic mercury. The miners (usually slaves or prisoners) who extracted cinnabar from the Southern Spanish mines for Roman consumption were essentially given death sentences for their work.
Red, symbolic of the blood of Christ, has played an important role in Christianity and Christian iconography. Cardinals wear red robes and the color is predominant in public-worship garments and textiles. Adopting the color was also a way for kings in the Middle Ages to show their God-given right to rule. Red became the color of regal majesty and power: Charlemagne wore red shoes at his coronation as a visible symbol of his authority, as did Louis XIV in his official portraits.
In Chinese philosophy, red is one of the colors associated with the five elements of the world: red for fire, yellow for earth, white for metal, black for water, and green for wood. The fire element, and therefore red, is linked to dynamism, leadership, confidence, aggression, and hypersensitivity. When Chinese emperors asked their personal fortune tellers to choose a color that would bring the most prosperity and good fortune to their reign, red was the answer: in the Zhou, Han, Jin, Song and Ming Dynasties it was the royal color par excellence and was featured heavily in royal ceremonies. In this Tang-era painting of Chinese Emperors from the Han to Sui dynasty, eleven of the thirteen Emperors wear red robes, symbolizing their royal power.
In Europe, the substances used for to make red dye (madder and kermes) produced a weaker, browner hue. The Aztec’s secret was cochineal, a small bug that was scraped off cactuses, dried, and then crushed.
