My proposal is to use colour film and digital photography, as well as traditional methods such as observational watercolours and paint, to collect colour swatches and palettes that describe specific seasonal moments in The Glen Park. These colour palettes will then be painted onto tree forms and then ‘planted’ in the areas where the colour samples were collected, but in a different seasonal context. A tree representing a summer colour palette will be ‘planted’ in the winter environment of The Glen, while the sculpture describing a winter palette will be placed in Summer. The Autumn colour palette will be displayed in Spring, and vice versa. The project is mapped around 4 proposed display dates:
Spring Equinox 20 March 2024
Summer Solstice 21 June 2024
Autumn Equinox 23 September 2024
Winter Solstice 21 December 2024
Intention
The work is intended to be minimalist in nature, stripping away the context of calendars, mythology and cultural connotations, to represent a simplified engagement with the seasonal changes purely through colour. The project is not intended to have a prescribed outcome, but is intended as an open and honest observational engagement with the actual colours of The Glen, without romanticisation or idealisation. The notion of a colour tree is also intended to reflect modern explanations of colour, described by such scientific models as Albert Munsell’s Colour Tree.
Broader aim
The broader aim of the project is to allow the artist a period in which to engage with colour observation and colour mixing in the context of the natural seasonal phases of The Glen, and to allow local park users to engage with the development of art projects outside of the usual settings. It is hoped that the work will be experienced as a chance encounter by the casual park user, stimulating ideas in the viewer about time, colour, contrast, representation and form. The work will be documented with video and photography with the intention that it will be displayed to the public at a later date in those formats. All of the observational colour documentation will be collected for additional context.
About Tom Doig
Tom is a collage artist and photographer who has been living in Cork since 1994, and based in The Glen since 2012. Originally from Scotland, he grew up between London and Ireland.
In the early 2000s, Tom was involved in various grassroots activism projects such as Cork Autonomous Zone (CAZ), Antiwar Ireland and 2005’s Capital of Culchies, while also working at Gleann na Smaointe permaculture project on the southside of Cork. He also edited and contributed artwork for issues 2 and 3 of Cork Anarchist Collective, a zine which distributed information about local grassroots activism. The 2003 ‘green’ edition of CAC sought to bring attention on local green spaces and biodiversity in Cork, in areas such as The Glen and The Quarry on Ballyhooly Road.
Tom returned to Education in 2005 and graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design in 2009, completing a Masters in Arts and Process there in 2017. He is currently a member of Backwater Artist’s Darkroom, Cork Printmakers and Outlaw Studios.
Tom is a keen photographer and collector of found print imagery, which he uses as a start for collages, print projects or as colour reference. Tom’s Gleann a Phuca proposal developed from daily engagement with The Glen during the 2019\20 Covid lockdowns. The idea for creating seasonal colour trees originated from photographic colour observations and an ongoing studio preoccupation with painting colour information onto found branches and tree forms.
