Red
2024
A book of 28 silkscreen and letterpress prints.
By Peter Duffin
Red is an exploration of the intersection between the color theories of Josef Albers and the linguistic theories of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Here both theorists seem to pose the question: 'how do we understand 'red'?'
For Albers, if you asked 20 people what color was 'red', they would produce 20 different results based on their personal experiences. Wittgenstein believed that our understanding of the word 'red' was likewise formed by context: all our prior exposures to that word formed our understanding of it.
2 theorists working in different times and places but coinciding in a core understanding of how we create meaning.
This book explores these points of connection, creating parallels between their theories and helping us comprehend how we create meaning from the world around us.
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The first page of Red presents a Josef Albers exercise from his iconic book Interaction of Color coupled with the poem, by West Coast poet Jack Spicer, A Red Wheelbarrow. Each subsequent page of the book presents a text by a writer that influenced Spicer where they used the word 'red'. For example T.S. Eliot writing about the shadow under a red rock, or Getrude Stein questioning if the 'red is rose'.
The book becomes an anthology of how a poet understood 'red' and a visual exploration of our different interpretations of the color red.
Red es una exploración de la intersección entre las teorías del color de Josef Albers y las teorías lingüísticas de Ludwig Wittgenstein. Aquí ambos teóricos parecen plantear la pregunta: «¿cómo entendemos el “rojo”?».
Para Albers, si se preguntaba a 20 personas qué color era el «rojo», obtendrían 20 resultados diferentes basados en sus experiencias personales. Wittgenstein creía que nuestra comprensión de la palabra «rojo» también se formaba por el contexto: todas nuestras exposiciones previas a esa palabra formaban nuestra comprensión de ella.
Dos teóricos que trabajan en épocas y lugares distintos, pero que coinciden en una idea básica de cómo creamos significado.
Este libro explora estos puntos de conexión, creando paralelismos entre sus teorías y ayudándonos a comprender cómo creamos significado a partir del mundo que nos rodea.
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La primera página de Red presenta un ejercicio de Josef Albers de su emblemático libro Interaction of Color junto con el poema del poeta de la costa oeste Jack Spicer, A Red Wheelbarrow. Cada página siguiente del libro presenta un texto de un escritor que influyó en Spicer en el que utilizó la palabra «rojo». Por ejemplo, T.S. Eliot escribiendo sobre la sombra bajo una roca roja, o Getrude Stein preguntándose si el «rojo es rosa».
El libro se convierte en una antología de cómo un poeta entendía el «rojo» y en una exploración visual de nuestras diferentes interpretaciones del color rojo.
Text: Selection from On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Text: We Lying By Seasand by Dylan Thomas
Text: Selection from The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
‘Red’ includes an image by Josef Albers (here recreated as an eight color silk screen). Thank you to Yale University Press and the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation for granting permission to reproduce the Josef Albers image which originally appeared in his book Interaction of Color.
"The Red Wheelbarrow," by William Carlos Williams, from THE COLLECTED POEMS: VOLUME I, 1909-1939, copyright ©1938 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Specifications
All texts are handset in 10pt Kennerley.
The paper is Sumi-e rice paper.
This book was created and printed by Peter Duffin at the Animales de Lorca print shop in Valencia, Spain in 2024/25. The silk screen prints were produced at the Lanevera print shop in Valencia, Spain.
‘Red’ is an edition of 10 with one artist’s proof.
Book: 307mm x 455mm