Understanding a colour, and following it, also seems to be naturally learned. Traffic lights work without any kind of explanation and in the Old Testament, little Moses is attracted to Pharaoh's glittering gold, and it is only thanks to the guiding hand of an angel that he finally picks up a glowing coal and not the king's gold, and the rest is history. Furthermore, of all the colours, it appears that the primary colours stir our imagination the most. Miffy, Meccano and the Bauhaus building blocks all make use of the primary colours, and green. The roof is red, the sun yellow, the sky blue and the forest green. It is not clear whether these colours are used because we are attracted to them, or the other way round, that we are attracted to them because they surround us from an early age. In fact, it doesn't matter; the colours become part of our universe and, in addition to their signalling function, they acquire a place in our memory. The sign becomes sense.

Kasper De Vos is fascinated by the memory of colours and their signalling function, as can be seen, for example, in Tintin. Colour also plays a fundamental role in Matt Mullican's work. In what he calls his cosmology, he orders the universe from his mental world. In the case of De Vos, it appears that the opposite is occurring. His is not an attempt to rationalise the inner world, but rather to recognise the emotional charge of colours. This "emotional reflex", then, becomes the guiding force with which the works are produced, - or composed. Not through the appropriation of colours, but rather by accepting their reality and using them based on their emotional meaning.

Artists: Kasper De Vos