Searching for White

Overview

Referring to Newton’s theory of colour and light, Searching for White uses 16mm film to mix colours. We see a white wall in an industrial building, on which a three-metre-high (imperfect) colour wheel has been painted. Slowly, the image begins to tilt and rotate around its axis. This acceleration almost mixes the colours of the wheel, creating green. As it rotates, a black spot appears in the image. Mater begins to paint the wheel and changes the colours one by one, shifting the wheel from green to blue and eventually, after accelerating, to almost white.