Simone Hoàng and four other artists were invited to show their work at the VU, based on the thesis of scientist Wil Uitgeest about the effects of colour. After the exhibition, the VU art committee bought Hoàng's artwork Nude.
The role of photography in image-making
In her work, Hoàng investigates the role of photography in image-making and processes of (collective) memory. Triggered by Uitgeest's research, Hoàng decided to investigate something that had been occupying her for some time: the way coloured skin is represented in colour photographs.
A strange discovery
When the adopted Hoàng browsed through her biological Vietnamese family's photo book, she had discovered something strange. The faces of her family members, unlike the surroundings, had not been rendered colourfast. They seemed to be little detailed dark patches. It turned out that the first colour photo, Kodak's 'Ektacolor Normal', had not been properly adjusted to reproduce colour.
Impact of imaging
In the chemistry lab of the Department of Natural Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Hoàng distilled from the first original negatives the colours that are essential for the reproduction of tinted skin: brown, red, and yellow. She recorded these 'difficult' colours on three human-sized plates. The work of art now has a permanent place in the entrance to the building of the Medical Faculty. It shows us in a very subtle way what the impact of image formation is on the way we interact with each other. Bringing together current artistic and scientific research creates knowledge about today's society.
