Reuben Beren James

“Are there particular motivations behind your use of the colour pink?”

In this series I am exploiting the cultural baggage of pink and it’s relationship with femininity.

“What do you associate with the colour pink when you apply it to your practice?”

For me it varies, I will often engage with colour – pink included, without considering its associations outside the formal context of the piece of work, however with this ongoing series I am choosing to exploit the cultural connotations pink has with femininity through titling.

“Do you agree that in art, the shade pink can be used as a tool to subvert and distort its traditional cultural associations?”

I would like to believe so and to an extent I agree, what interests me about art – at least in my own work, is its relative position in regard to how it is understood. The art world provides an environment where artists can choose to utilise things like colour in an attempt to subvert or reinforce cultural associations, but what I find interesting is how regardless of intention people will impose their own form of classification onto these works, and in this respect, any perceived power to subvert or distort is taken out of the hands of the artist and placed into those of the viewer.