This issue brings together films that follow color as matter in motion—migrating across rock, textile, skin, celluloid, data, and every surface that holds a mark. From ancient dyes and industrial chemicals to biological pigments, light-sensitive reactions, and accidental residues, the works in PIGMENTO explore how color is produced, altered, preserved, and erased—tracing its material, scientific, and poetic lives.

Blóm + Bló∂

FILM Canada 2016
WhiteFeather Hunter

blóm + blóð (Icelandic for flowers + blood ) is an 8-minute silent digital video that presents performance as embodied research, situating the landscape as laboratory and studio. Created during a month-long residency at the Icelandic Textile Centre in Blönduós, the work

Quimtai (2015)

FILM Colombia, Germany, Brazil 2015
Camilo Colmenares

Play of abstract forms, patterns, rhythms and sounds. "Quimtai" is an abstract Animation based upon pre-colombian patterns of the now extinct Tairona and Quimbaya indigenous cultures of Colombia and is also inspired by the german absolute cinema. The animation was laser engraved directly onto 35mm B

Color Neutral (2014)

FILM United States 2014
Jennifer Reeves

A color explosion sparkles, bubbles and fractures in this hand-crafted 16mm film. Reeves utilized an array of mediums and direct-on-film techniques to create this boisterous, psychedelic morsel of cinema as material. Reeves' soundtrack mixes samples from rusty, dusty old machines, records and electr

Monarch Scales

FILM United States, Mexico, Canada 2019
Alexis Gambis

The first dive-in of a Monarch butterfly wing revealing the intricate scale structure, the pigmented scales, (fuzzy) borders. The borders of the wing evoke the borders between countries, notably between Canada, US and Mexico. The soundscape was created by director Alexis Gambis in collaboration with

$75 000

FILM France 2020
Moïse Togo

$75,000 highlights the biological aspect of albinism, which is a genetic and hereditary abnormality that affects not only pigmentation, bu also and above all the physical and moral conditions of people with albinism. These people are victims of discrimination, mutilation and ritual crimes in Africa.

Pandèmia

FILM Spain 2021
Albert Bayona

Reading the novel Essay on Blindness by José Saramago captivated me from the beginning due to the parallelism with John Wyndham's novel The Day of the Triffids. Both works touch on the subject of a pandemic. On the one hand, Saramago writes about a pandemic that infects people with vision los

Violet Gave Willingly

FILM Canada 2022
Claire Sanford

Violet Gave Willingly immerses us in the colourful world of textile artist Deborah Dumka, inviting viewers to witness the unflinchingly intimate details of her artistic process and inner life. Nestled in a cluttered studio by the sea, we witness an artist at work on a project that delves into a past

Hillocks (2022)

FILM United States 2022
Maria Constanza Ferreira

This experimental animation features the enigmatic bodies of dyed crystals grown by Maria Ferreira and by Dr. Bart Kahr, the lead scientist at the Kahr Research Group who has worked on growing these types of crystals throughout the past 30 years. The film is an embroidery of thousands of crystals do

Flower Rain (2023)

FILM China 2023
Wei Gao

Celestial spheres morph into a drizzle of flowers and leaves: translucent, buoyant and dreamlike. With an inquisitive, meditative score by Kim Kwangseok of sparse folk and lingering tolling of bells, Flower Rain is a photochemical, X-ray journey through the compositions and cosmic gateways of bloom.

历历如画 (14 Paintings)

FILM China 2023
Dongnan Chen

The Chinese village of Dafen was once a place where thousands of professional painters made reproductions of Western masterpieces. At the government's instigation, these artists now paint their own original works. Their paintings hang all over China, in a wide variety of settings, from hospitals to

Ritual (2024)

FILM Mexico 2024
Colectivo Los Ingrávidos

In the temple of film, we are invited to peel back our eyelids and stare straight into the sun. We are here to worship the light in the darkness, the lunar and solar rituals that move the body into fits of dance. For the initiated, a manifestation of the cult of cinema. Music composed by Lluvia de p

Tonalli (2023)

FILM Mexico 2023
Colectivo Los Ingrávidos

Tonalli is cinema as ritual, with pulsating images, the rhythm of the music and the ecstasy of light flashing in a darkened room. The film has three movements: Xochiyáoyotl (the 'Flower war'), Tlecacitl (a solar-lunar ceremony where Xolotl, the god of lightning and death, emerges) and Tonalli

Mom's Clothes

FILM United States of America 2018
Jordan Wong

A nonfiction reflection on being out of the closet. As a queer person of color, it's taken me a long time to be as comfortable as I am through navigating forms of intimacy, gender, and self worth. It doesn't always get better, but you're beautiful however you decide to present, including the choice

Cyclical Refractions

FILM United States 2017
J.M. Martínez

Spheres of reality in conflict. Nature being structured in the mode of logic and science, and human affairs in the mode of story and narrative. Branching out through the forking canopy, a chorus of groaning trees beckons as the light refracts illuminating portals for one to enter. The imagery was ac

Sunspots (2025)

FILM United States 2025
Abinadi Meza

Solar pulses bloom across retinal veins, like coral branching. Fractures in film spark like distant stars. Sunspots drift as debris - voids in our vision. A film suspended between the vast and the intimate, the macro and the micro.

if you seek amy

FILM UK, Turkey 2025
Ela Kazdal

The seductive gazes with which Fergie, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé and Katy Perry once pierced the camera, reach us through a whirlwind of reproduction and deformation. Their images deconstructed so far that halftone dots become visible, their iconic Y2K pop hits collapsed into

Un-Tidal (2022)

FILM USA 2022
Masha Vaslova

An experimental film essay about a found (stolen?) photograph, a hurricane, and film's inherent ability to animate and re-animate still, dead, and inanimate beings, images, and objects. The film is created using an ink-jet direct-on-film technique where the digital frame is printed directly onto ont

Tenjinsan Textiles

FILM Japan 2021
Michael Lyons Haruka Mitani

This is a stop motion animation of antique kimono textiles from the Nishijin district in Kyoto. It was filmed on super 8 in Kyoto by Michael Lyons and Haruka Mitani. The soundtrack was created by Michael Lyons and Palle Dahlstedt using the Octopus analogue audio-visual interface. The synthesizer fol

Night Walk (2023)

FILM South Korea 2023
Sohn Koo-yong

There is an incredible depth to Sohn Koo-young's images—levels of both contrast and detail that would seem antithetical. They are so close to stills, if it weren't for the movement. Night Walk's compositions evoke a point-and-click PC game; the shots are locked off precisely and the details be

Blood, Sea, Film

FILM Mexico 2013
Andres Garcia Franco

Blood, Sea, Film is an experimental short by Mexican filmmaker Andrés García Franco that contemplates the elemental ties between water, life, and existence. Through poetic imagery and sound, the film reflects on the sea as both a source of vitality and a symbol of fragility, evoking a

Colorful Colorado Nails

FILM USA 2024
Monica Panzarino

Inspired by Phil Morton's classic 1976 video, "Colorful Colorado", as well as Panzarino's first artist's residency at Signal Culture's new studio space in Loveland, Colorado. Panzarino processes footage of a drive through Rocky Mountain National Park using Signal Culture's Wobbulator, Jones MVIP Eur

SPIKA:Sowing Teeth

FILM United Kingdom 2025
Benjamin Wigley

Beneath the polished floors of the Triennale di Milano, the ground begins to stir—an awakening of memory and matter. Plant, prion, soil, microbe… a fissure appears, first noticed by the cleaners. What starts as a subtle disturbance evolves into SPIKA, a strange ecological disruption tha

quilt frame (2022)

FILM United States 2022
Anna Hogg

A mother and daughter hand-wash a 100-year-old quilt in order to restore and preserve it. The quilt was made by the filmmaker's great-grandmother, who hand-stitched together old chicken-feed bags and other leftover materials. The film serves as a documentation of the quilt's preservation, while also

Serene Hues (2025)

FILM Canada 2025
Rita Tse

Serene Hues , hand-processed, solarized, tinted, and toned, is a meditative journey into the tranquility and vibrant beauty of nature. The surprising and unexpected images created through process-driven filmmaking, which is improvisational and interactive, embody the wabi-sabi aesthetic of impermane

Azul (2021)

FILM United Kingdom 2021
Tina Rowe

The 19th C botanist Anna Atkins used the cyanotype process to capture the plants she studied and in so doing produced the first published work that was accompanied by photographs. The process is simple and also reminiscent of magic through the mixing of two liquids that become a light sensitive poti

Purling (2021)

FILM Britain 2021
Kayla Parker Stuart Moore

Direct animation that intertwines – 'purls' together – two equal lengths of 16mm film. Purl is the term for a stitch in hand-knitting made by putting the needle through the front of the stitch from right to left; purl also means a swirling stream of water. On the strip of clear leader, c

PRLYZR (2025)

FILM United States 2025
Josiah Angcanan

A journey through sleep through closed eyelids: drifting slowly to sleep, the mind wanders; phosphenes change colors under rapid eye movement; stuck in sleep paralysis, the colors violently pulsate; then finally, the eyes burst open wide awake.

True Colours (2022)

FILM United Kingdom 2022
Matthew Berka

In True Colours, x-ray radiology imaging exposes the internal anatomy of the human body whilst a passage from Gerald Murnane's Border Districts (2017) is read. The passage describes an 'inner luminous essence' emanating from a 'glass-like entity' with 'a skull not of bone but of translucent glass'.

Tinta Dulce (2025)

FILM Colombia 2025
Liliana Merizalde

In the mountains of Colombia, three associations of artisans from the municipalities of Guacamayas, Sutatausa, and Curití recount their experience using the coca leaf as a natural dye through the Tinta dulce (Sweet Ink) project. Despite its classification since 1961 on the United Nations Sche

Ceremony for Minerals (2025)

FILM United States 2025
Sierra Weir

Ceremony for Minerals is an experimental short film by artist and activist Sierra Weir. Hands breaking down earth are shown in developed and undeveloped landscapes, staining stones, skin, and a white linen dress. Each action has a lasting impact, and the nature of deep time is bent with the erratic

The Indigo Factory

FILM India 2024
Sashi Sivramkrishna

The Indigo Factory is a journey through the rich tapestry of indigo-making and subsequent processing into fabric, set against the backdrop of India's colonial history, which transformed an artisanal occupation into mass production in factories. This project is a homage to the legacy of indigo, a dye

die back (2025)

FILM Australia 2025
Perdita Phillips Annette Nykiel

An experimental film about the Coalfields of Collie, southwest Western Australia by Perdita Phillips and Annette Nykiel. The film was originally made for Petrocultures 2024 (southern hemisphere/Perth), using local coal and charcoal, ochres and natural plant dyes. Sound and editing was based around s

More Than I Thought I Knew

FILM United States 2025
Natalie Peracchio

Performed by Frankie Tillo and Jens Kuross This 16mm music video combines atmospheric footage and performance with chemically altered film to evoke themes of loss, longing, and grief. Film emulsion was treated with a bleach solution in order to partially damage and remove sections of the image. The

Tending to the Soul

FILM United States 2025
DW McCrary

In rural Alabama, Freedom Farm Azul serves as a sanctuary for nourishment, education, and healing. Through intimate interviews and lush imagery, this poetic documentary reveals how land stewardship becomes an act of resistance, restoration, and collective care.

Campo Carmín (Carmine Field)

FILM Mexico 2022
Tania Candiani

Campo Carmín is a single-channel video that explores the material, historical, and cultural significance of grana cochinilla—the carmine pigment derived from insects native to Mesoamerica and once at the center of colonial trade networks. Filmed in Mexico, the work traces the complete c

Pigment (2013)

FILM United Kingdom 2013
Julie Brook

Over the years I have consistently used raw pigment in my drawing and sculptural work. In Namibia I was introduced to the way in which the Himba women use red pigment rubbed onto their skin. This has both an aesthetic and protective value for them. Through an unexpected meeting with 3 Himba women in

It Was Not the Color

FILM Tunisia 2025
Maya Louhichi

"It Was Not the Color" is a contemplative and experimental work that invites a journey through the landscapes of skin, its textures, contours, and shades. Through close-up shots of bodies with varied tones - black, white, brown - the video questions our relationship to skin, between heritage and con

Dawn and Dusk (2023)

FILM Spain 2023
Toni Mitjanit

Dawn & Dusk (2023) is an abstract exploration of the temporal space between dawn and dusk and how the dual nature of light varies on a microscopic scale through the vibrations of photons, oscillations of electromagnetic waves, and refraction and reflexion light properties. Through creative programmi

Brice Bischoff - Bronson Caves

FILM United States 2024
Christin Turner

Artist Brice Bischoff documents the long cinematic history of the Bronson Caves into a single, durational image. This "Plato's Cave in the Hollywood Hills" is a site of illusions, crafted for a form of capitalism unique to Los Angles: television shows and movies. Here, Bischoff uses the poorest of e

negative, baby (2025)

FILM USA 2025
Kym McDaniel

The audience is invited to clap every time they see the word "negative" on screen. An attempt at celebrating negative test results while acknowledging the inherent failure of the same diagnostic tests for people living with chronic pain.

Qamaya Puka (2025)

FILM United States 2025
Patricia Alvarez Astacio

Cochineal (Dactylopius Coccus) is a beetle, endemic to the Americas, that lives in the nopal cacti (Opuntia) produces carminic acid to deter predators that also makes it an important pigment source. Cultivated since pre-Hispanic times, cochineal is still the only natural source of red and pink pigme

Before The Clearing

FILM United States 2025
Mikey Peterson

One natural element mirrors another in this dreamlike landscape, as conflicting movements of light and shadow reveal a fractured, expressive scene. Water, light, air, and flora layer congruously to create new visual perspectives, while our minds try to reassemble the familiar images and textures tha

(Su)Staining (2022)

FILM United Kingdom 2022
Monika Dutta

Picking wild damsons at a little piece of land : shot on 16mm film and hand processed using plant phenol developer and sea water fixative, the footage was originally exhibited as a 40 ft film loop installed in the stairwell of Shirethorne House, one of Hull's historic former retail buildings, now us

Be my eyes (2022)

FILM France 2022
Lea Collet

Gilles, suffers from a glaucoma, an eye disease that causes a gradual and irreversible loss of sight. Over the past few months, the last traces of sharpness have faded away. Slowly, his glaucoma transmutes into an enigmatic group performance. Guided through a hazy audio description voice, they seem

Invasive Pigments (The Making of)

FILM United States 2015
Ellie Irons

Shot in Brooklyn, NY, this short video follows me from the street to the studio to the page as I create watercolor paint from the tough, weedy plants who green urban and disturbed habitats. It offers a rumination on the process, product and implications of my ongoing Feral and Invasive Pigments proj

Lossy Recollections (2018)

FILM United States 2018
Asha Tamirisa

The digital is often thought to be synonymous with improvement and permanence. However, encoding and decoding digital information modifies its object, causing data loss. Dwelling in imperfect transmission and nonlinearity, Lossy Recollections embraces digital regression in combination with analog de

Noema (2014)

FILM Austria 2014
Christiana Perschon

Tatjana is a 93 years old painter who is slowly losing her eyesight. She tries to adapt to a changing landscape that is becoming more challenging with each day. Even though her world gets shrouded with shadows, the painter in her tries to figure out the different layers of colours that are left in i

Alpsee (1994)

FILM Germany 1994
Matthias Müller

Despite the seemingly innocuous gestures of household life, a dark, unmanageable world seems to want to erupt from it. At one point it literally does: in a stunning image, the milk the mother pours for her son overflows the glass onto the table, the floor, and eventually down the hall in an endless

Grinding Pigment (2013)

FILM United Kingdom 2013
Julie Brook

Observational Short film from NW Namibia. Over the years I have consistently used raw pigment in my drawing and sculptural work. In Namibia I was introduced to the way in which the Himba women use red pigment rubbed onto their skin. This has both an aesthetic and protective value for them. Through a

Hinterlands (2016)

FILM United Kingdom 2016
Scott Barley

Through a structuralist and simultaneously ambiguous form, the image's reality treads closer to the abstract, leaving the sunset and trees behind. As we enter the image's gloaming, it reveals its true eye: reality's pure haptic energy, where there is nothing but sonorous light, and the dregs of the

Half Moon (2025)

FILM United Kingdom 2025
Scott Barley

A cosmic, sensorial dance between moon and ocean, forests and rivers. Shot on iPhone, combined with superimposed paintings and drawings by the artist, and rephotographing techniques.

Tinta (ink)

FILM Mexico 2025
Maria Valeria Pazos Fernández

INK (Tinta) unfolds as a poetic visual meditation on enclosure, imagination, and the persistence of desire. Conceived as the first movement of a larger cycle, the video constructs an intimate, suspended space where time folds back onto itself and the domestic interior becomes a mental, symbolic, and

Born To Be Yves Klein Blue

FILM USA 2016
Christin Turner

An improvisation, a poem, a song, blue nights in Palm Desert. Inspired by the films of Vincent Grenier , magicians, Rebecca Solnit, and "Yves Klein Speaks!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "For many years, I have been moved by the blue at the far edge of

La Restauradora (The Restorer)

FILM Mexico 2020
Tania Candiani

La Restauradora (The Restorer) recreates the color palette that would have been used in the pictorial representation of some of the most significant changes in the 14th century to the present day at the coordinates 19 ° 26'07.0 "N 99 ° 07'55.2 "W, where the Cultural Center Seminario 12 is lo

Pulso (Pulse)

FILM Mexico 2016
Tania Candiani

Pulse was a sound action on an urban, collective and feminist scale. It consisted of the journey of more than 200 women through the Mexico City Metro, beating drums that generated a sound like a flow that simultaneously referred to memory and the present. With their hands stained with scarlet cochin

La Molienda (The Grinding)

FILM Mexico 2015
Tania Candiani

La Molienda (The Grinding), 2015 – 2022. Installation and Performance, 18 old stone metates, grana cochineal ground and HD video. Variable measures A group of women grinds cochineal on metates, leaving the pigment as a record of the performative action. The sound of that task becomes the prota

Remains (2011)

FILM Canada 2011
Louise Bourque

A celluloid deterioration that addresses the ephemeral quality of the captured moment (the present) while revealing the insistent power of human presence in even the most deteriorated of states. The image of the mother is like a ghost that we won't let go. A lament for the inevitable loss of legibil

Western Sunburn (2007)

FILM Canada 2007
Karl Lemieux

Western Sunburn is a re-photography in video of material that was originally used in a performance during which Karl Lemieux, painted, scratched and burned film loops from an old western 16mm film. Traces of an impossible past and future collide in a trajectory where the present unravels.

Imprint (1997)

FILM Canada 1997
Louise Bourque

An obsession, a fleeting image, a longing: the home as a romanticized, idealized place of intimacy, insistently inhabiting the most personal sphere, the territory of dreams and memories, of fantasy and desire. Using a short segment from personal home-movies (edited and reproduced multiple times) as

Ochre Sunrise (2025)

FILM United States 2025
Keenan DesPlanques

In the 80s, a man named Wayne Powars stumbled upon the oldest known mine in the Americas. Some of the first people on this continent were mining for sacred red ochre 10,000 - 15,000 years ago in eastern Wyoming. The archeology site was almost destroyed by modern iron mines, but is now helping archae