TRES - An Exploration of Color Through Light, Pigment, and Vegetal Forms

TRES was born during those strange times after lockdowns, when three artists came together to explore something fundamental about color. We each brought our own field of experience, light, pigment, and vegetal forms, and through this collaboration, we created something that would let the public experience color in ways they never had before.

The Concept

The idea was simple but profound: what happens when you put light, pigment, and natural forms together in a space where color becomes the medium itself? TRES wasn't about creating art that represented color, it was about creating a space where color could exist and transform, where visitors could step into color itself and experience how it works, how it changes, how it affects perception.

The name "TRES" came from the three of us working together, each bringing our own expertise to explore the same question from different angles. We weren't trying to teach people about color theory, we wanted them to feel it, to experience it, to discover it for themselves.

The Light Box

The core of TRES was a light box, a space where visitors could literally enter a colored room that continuously modified its color over time. This wasn't just a display of changing lights; it was an environment where the very nature of color perception could be explored and experienced.

How It Worked

Inside the light box, we placed floral arrangements and painted artworks, each chosen for their specific color properties. As the light cycled through all the colors of the spectrum, these objects would interact with the changing illumination in fascinating ways. Visitors could navigate around the space, experiencing how the same objects would appear completely different depending on the color of light that was illuminating them.

The Three Elements

Light: The lighting system cycled through all colors, creating a constantly changing environment that served as the canvas for the entire experience.

Pigment: Painted artworks were strategically placed throughout the space, each one chosen for how its colors would interact with the changing light.

Vegetal Forms: Natural botanical elements, flowers, leaves, and other plant materials, were integrated into the space, each selected for their specific color properties and how they would respond to different lighting conditions.

The Color Phenomena

The magic of TRES happened in the interaction between the changing light and the objects inside the box. Depending on the color of light, the same objects would appear completely different, sometimes even disappearing entirely.

Color Disappearance

When the light color matched the pigment or flower color, objects would seemingly disappear completely. It was like magic, you could see a flower one moment, and the next moment it was gone, dissolved into the light itself. Visitors would gasp as familiar forms simply vanished before their eyes.

Grey Gradients

When the light was red, something fascinating would happen. The world would lose its color, and everything would shift into grey gradients. It wasn't the grey of sadness, but the grey of revelation. In this state, visitors would discover that color isn't a property of objects, it's a gift of light. They would feel their eyes adjusting, their perception shifting as they learned to see the world differently.

Color Inversion

When the light was the opposite color of an object, visitors would experience color inversion effects. Objects would appear in colors they had never possessed, creating a surreal landscape where the familiar became alien and the impossible became real.

Black and White Perception

During moments of color absence, when the light would fade, visitors could feel themselves beginning to perceive in black and white instead of the colors that were reflecting when the light was present. It was a profound exploration of how our visual system adapts to different lighting conditions.

The Three Artists

Our Collaboration

TRES was created by three artists, each bringing their own field of experience to explore the same question from different angles:

The Light Artist: Responsible for designing and implementing the lighting system that could cycle through all colors while maintaining precise control over intensity and timing.

The Painter: Created the pigment-based artworks that would interact with the changing light, carefully selecting colors and materials that would produce the most dramatic effects.

The Botanical Artist: Curated and arranged the natural vegetal forms, choosing plants and flowers based on their color properties and how they would respond to different lighting conditions.

The Post-Lockdown Context

TRES emerged during a unique moment in history, the period following global lockdowns when people were rediscovering their relationship with art, nature, and shared experiences. The installation was designed to address a collective need for sensory exploration and reconnection with the fundamental elements of visual perception.

Technical Implementation

The Lighting System

The heart of the installation was a sophisticated LED lighting system that could cycle through the entire color spectrum with precise control over color temperature, saturation, intensity, and timing. The system was designed to create smooth transitions that allowed visitors to experience the full range of color effects.

The Space

The light box was designed to create a controlled environment where lighting conditions could be precisely controlled and modified. The space was large enough to accommodate multiple visitors simultaneously, yet intimate enough to create a sense of shared wonder and exploration.

The Experience

Entering the Light Box

When visitors stepped into the light box, they found themselves in a constantly changing environment. The experience was designed to be both educational and magical, with visitors discovering color phenomena through direct observation rather than explanation.

The Color Cycle

The lighting system would cycle through different colors over time, allowing visitors to experience color matching, color contrast, color absence, and color saturation effects. They would see objects disappear and reappear, colors invert and transform, the world shift from full color to monochrome and back again.

Group Experience

The installation was designed to accommodate multiple visitors simultaneously, creating a shared experience where people could discuss and compare their observations of the same color phenomena.

Impact and Legacy

TRES demonstrated that art could serve as a powerful educational tool, teaching complex concepts about color perception through direct experience. The installation showed how artists from different disciplines could work together to create something that transcended individual expertise.

The Educational Value

The emphasis on direct sensory experience proved more effective than traditional educational methods for understanding color theory. Visitors left with a new understanding of how light and color work together to create the world we see.

The Post-Lockdown Healing

In the tender time after isolation, when people were learning to gather again, to share experiences, to feel wonder together, TRES became a bridge back to the fundamental joys of human perception. It was not just an art installation, it was a way for people to remember that they could still be amazed, still be moved, still be transformed by the simple act of seeing.

The Ephemeral Nature

TRES was never meant to be a permanent installation. Like the colors that danced within its walls, it was meant to exist only in the moment, to create experiences that could not be captured or preserved, that had to be lived to be understood. But the lessons it taught, the wonder it inspired, the new ways of seeing it revealed, these continue to live on in the hearts and minds of all who experienced it.

The installation showed us that color is not merely a property of objects, but a gift of light. It revealed that perception is not passive, but active, not fixed, but fluid. It demonstrated that the most profound art is not that which tells us what to think, but that which shows us how to see.

TRES was more than an exploration of color, it was an exploration of the human capacity for wonder, for discovery, for transformation. It was a space where three artists, three disciplines, and countless visitors came together to create something that transcended all of them, something that existed in the space between light and shadow, between seeing and understanding, between the real and the imagined.

This was truly the beginning of imagination, a space where the boundaries between the known and the unknown could dissolve, creating new possibilities for creative expression and human connection.