Despite the majority of the western world considering pink to be a typically feminine colour, in Belgium it’s associated with boys, and blue is for girls. Sports teams in Iowa, USA have been known to use the colour when painting the opposing team’s locker rooms. The idea behind this is to knock the confidence of the other team, meant to dull competitive spirit. An almost misogynistic attempt at emasculation. It seems that nobody can agree on the true psychology behind the colour, however, if we can agree on one thing, it’s that it makes for some pretty cool art.
Inspired by what is considered by many to be the colour of compassion and nurture, this collection of art demonstrates how each individual artist explores the idea of femininity through the use of pink – even sometimes in an abstract way. The colour means a range of different things to different people, sometimes evoking feelings of love and for others it’s a symbolism of punk and rebellion.
“Pink isn’t just a colour. It’s an attitude too” – Miley Cyrus.
This collective includes work from the likes of Belinda Frikh, Pandemonia, GrAzie, Sue Dray, French cowboy, Barry Wilson, Matthew Lawrence, Jeff Muhs, Evi Antonio, Bruce Atherton, Trafford Parsons, GL Wood, Syrett, Sandro Hyrams and Hana Tischler. Each of these artists possess their own individual style and expresses the use of pink in different ways, getting their inspiration from different places.
In Evi Antonio’s work she uses the colour to express calmness and tranquillity, another asset often associated with the colour. This can be seen in her piece “Blue Morpho with orchids”. Her inspiration is drawn from a mixture of the natural and urban worlds. – “I’d like to take the viewer on my journey where my love for nature and urban landscape collide and combine in harmony.” The marrying of these two ends up creating art with a truly unique and personal feel. Or there’s French Cowboy, utilising it as a focal point amongst an otherwise monochromatic image. They use pink to create vibrancy and incorporate a hint of femininity in their imagery.
Contrastingly, there’s Pandemonia, an art project exploring hyper-femininity in the form of a plastic blonde bombshell and using pink to help curate this image. “On the surface she is the consumerist vision in person; forever young, tall, glossy, etc.”. Other artists such as Syrett and Jeff Muhs use pink in a more abstract way, leaving the image and the colours used more open to interpretation. Whether for you that means femininity and romance, or calmness and serenity.