Katya Guerrero’s latest exhibition, The State of Color, looks at the highly saturated barrage of color in Filipino public and psychic spaces. Her installation of photographs on a desk is a study of the pervasive use of color codes that are more than just systems for easy identification. While many previous analyses of its phenomenology have assigned common symbolisms to colors, it is also by no means universal and all-encompassing. Color is one of the most elusive and non-tactile of all the visual elements. Like language, it is a highly subjective matter, a contingent that is shaped by time, space, and context.

In the Philippines, Guerrero observes that color is often used to mark territories which is “most evident in public roads, electrical posts, lampposts, public schools, playgrounds, public buildings, waiting sheds, garbage cans, and uniforms.” It is also a way of pledging allegiance to a faction or ideology. She adds, “most of the time, these are side by side with street graffiti, which makes me think if there is such a thing as political graffiti. I see blue, red, yellow, green, violet, pink, orange in every hue and shade possible, slopped on layer upon layer all over our city, signifying past, present, and for sure, future political dynasties.” Guerrero sees the irony that as much as we associate color with beauty and order, too much of it can also cause visual pollution. Through her installation, she doesn’t seek to aestheticize nor generalize color; rather, she poses some questions: Do we really need all these colors? How did we arrive at their arbitrary significations? The same questions can also be asked regarding the state of contemporary art. Amidst the proliferation and excess of ideas and images, we return to a timeless question—how do we discern what is true and meaningful in art?