The Red Key
Back in 2016, there was an exhibition of eighteenth-century South American art at the Art Institute of Chicago. One painting I thought was particularly interesting was Our Lady of The Rosary of Chinquinquira by Joaquin Gutierrez.
The artist signed the back of the painting with the notation "touched in the original", meaning his copy of the painting was made in front of (aligned with) the original, and therefore had certain numinous powers or essences. The Jupiter/Saturn Great Conjunction simultaneous with the Winter Solstice is another example of a "touching"—the universe is telling us something with this particular display. But the Something is just about every Anything: The ascription of meaning (qualia) is both personal and collective.
Being "touched" connotes the superstitious. Red is in some ways a tool of gaslighting, spotlighting, or the casting of aspersions: its meanings are ambiguous at best, but the suggestion of the paranormal makes us think that red objects have spiritual significance. For example, if we start seeing the hashtag #red, or red monoliths popping up in the middle of the night, what would that signify? That is the power of the hashtag in general: it's a catchall for a variety of meanings—even no meaning at all. It goes back to the idea of "don't think of an elephant", or the SNL skit with Kristin Wiig Secret Word, where the rule of keeping a secret reflexively compels her to break it.
Specific Uses
Painting things red never goes out of style. It’s the most logical color after the complete absence of light, and I would assert is a human Universal. The answer to what the next color is after black and white is almost universally implied. It wouldn't be green—or even blue. This may be because the light spectrum from low to high frequency begins with red on the left. [The collective understanding of things, true or conspiratorial, is 99% of reality—even that "red is on the left" as a cardinal (pun as both bird and red cardinal robe) orientation]. Red is the first "escape hatch" from black and white.
Curator Francesco Bonami:
"When I was very young almost half a century ago myself and a friend of mine went into the woods on the outskirts of Florence, we painted a huge boulder red, just for fun. I wonder what people who saw it thought about it. I think they considered it vandalism rather than creativity, as they did with the monolith."
My Just the Red Garments From 16th and 17th-century Painting photo collage (printed on silk), given further meaning by printing the photograph on fine silk and making an Edition.
My red shoe-shine stand painted red, titled Redimade, both a use of red as universal and as a visual pun and word-play on what it is as an object—a Dadaist Readymade—one of the few readymades I've ever made.
My Red Hex, where "hex" is the short version of "hexadecimal". But usually when people hear "hex" they think of a Spell. (It's also interesting that 'hex" is close to "hoax")
On Ochre
Large rock paintings made 12,500 years ago were recently discovered in the Amazon. The red pigment used at the time was ochre, derived from the red clay in the region, also used to make pottery.
“When you’re there, your emotions flow…" (This is a form of being "touched by the original"—the reason people flock to see certain original images such as the Mona Lisa, or images which are infused with spiritual power such as the Shroud of Turin).
The red used by the tribes of Tierra Del Fuego is also derived from the soil and clay of the region, and also has varied meaning—given that it is the same red used for different rituals—some with clownish/trickster implications. Color film did not exist at the time these photographs were taken, and the ochre hues are a dark gray. The fact that I defined the hue made you see that red in your mind's eye. It was the "elephant" I told you to think of.
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