work / TAMIYA COLOUR CHART 2017

Tamiya Colour Chart

TolarnoGalleries@50

Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

August/September 2017

This project references a colour chart from the Tamiya Corporation, the plastic toy model company of Japan, which first began production of its model kits in the 1940s. My connection to Tamiya began in the mid 1970’s when I first began to build and paint my own collection of models, including a Porsche 934 Turbo RSR kit I received in 1976, on my thirteenth birthday, which I painted bright red (TS49), a colour carefully selected from the Tamiya colour chart.

I vividly recall the various colours from this chart, colours that have the capacity to resonate and evoke specific associations, many are colours one would relate to the landscape of war; greys, dirty reds, olive greens and creams etc, these are the same colours I used to paint tanks, ships, jeeps, helicopters, camouflage and fatigues on tiny 1:12 scale models. Other colours in the chart are specific to racing cars and motorcycles with colours titled Italian Red, British Racing Green, German Grey and French Blue, all typical national Grand Prix colours. The hours I spent constructing each model as a child, selecting the colours and carefully painting the finished product are, for me, embedded in the experiences and memories surrounding this colour chart. The angled, bolt like form used to display each colour in the chart is itself reminiscent of heavy industry and machinery. It presents an interesting juxtaposition between its industrial sharpness and some of the softer colours.

In making the work I was also interested in the idea of mechanical process and the mass production of the model kits, that were originally shipped in boxes all over the world. The process involved in making the multiples seems completely in keeping with this association to the Tamiya Corporations assembly line production, with each work hand sprayed and assembled into sets, ready for the new owner to frame or display in whatever configuration they decide. There are 12 sets of multiples (with 40 colours in each set). This amount equates to the number of images I could spray from one can of Tamiya paint. The format of the work, including the number of multiples and the placement of colours, was dictated by the spray can and the colour chart itself.

Colour Chart, Tamiya Corporation, Japan.