Back to overview

Fiona Tan | Technicolor Dreaming

Technicolor Dreaming 1, 2022

Fiona Tan’s Technicolor Dreaming series is informed by her interest in early filmmakers’ obsession with colour.

Unlike in printmaking, perfect registration was not possible when early films were hand-coloured in a lengthy, elaborate process using small brushes and stencils. Likewise, in the prints, “the colours have their own life, dancing on top of the image”, as Tan herself puts it.

The prints were created in a two-step process: first the black-and-white photographic material was printed from a photogravure plate; in a second step, carefully considered selections of the images were printed in colour from a second, smaller copper plate hand-painted using spit bite.

Technicolor Dreaming II (detail), 2022
Masterprinter Julie Dam printing Technicolor Dreaming II

Learn more about Fiona Tan