Arts
Colour blinded exemplifies the way we work together, when we work together. Destiny thinks her thoughts and Virginia thinks hers. Neither of us recalls a time we’ve talked much about making work together, or discussed ideas or methods except while doing it and even then only briefly. In this case Destiny proposed doing something with sodium lights that Virginia had used before, though not in joint works. Destiny wanted to take black-and-white photos and Virginia suggested using orthochromatic film because of the way it reads and reduces colour. Destiny dreamt up and took the photos and proposed and directed most of the scenarios for the video, which Virginia shot and edited. Destiny had the idea for the snow dome and Virginia made it work. That’s the mechanics of it. But the other things that go into it result from what we’ve each been separately thinking, doing and reading; our awareness of current events and our personal histories in contact with each other and anyone else we’re working with; materials, media and the occasion or opportunity for making and showing work. The empty space in the installation is as important to us as the objects in it. When anyone walks into the space they’re absorbed into it and, visually at least, become part of the work, instead of getting in the way of it. It was exciting when a serious and respectable-looking older woman standing with her friend in Colour blinded in Paris clapped her hands and laughed and asked in French, ‘Are we alive or dead?’ Part of the point of the lights is always the same: the somewhat sinister thrill of the change they make to whatever and whoever is in their range, and the way they illustrate that how you look at things – literally the light you see them in – affects what you see. Destiny Deacon and Virginia Fraser, 2007