Total internal reflection

According to colour theory, certain colours work together in complementary ways that affect how they are seen and understood. The immersive installation Total internal reflection draws specifically on Buddhist ideas and the understandings of colour in the Vedas, a canon of Sanskrit texts codified more than three thousand years ago. In this multi-sensory light installation, Tiffany Singh explores the different energies and healing properties that colours possess within these belief systems.

Total internal reflection is a therapeutic environment designed to encourage collective participation and reflection. Visitors enter a blackened hallway towards a panel of seven illuminated coloured buttons: magenta, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. The chosen colours correlate to the seven chakras, or energy centres, of Buddhism. After selecting a colour, the visitor proceeds through the hallway to enter a light-filled room. Singh likens the experience to standing in the light cast through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral.1 The colour-saturated gallery space is left deliberately sparse, creating an opportunity for visitors to cast shadows and engage with the shadow play of others.

The colour selected by each visitor feeds into the circuit of the light installation, which changes at the pace of human breath. This collaborative approach makes the visitor into a co-author of the work, a gesture that reflects the artist’s ideals and ethos. The collective effort required to fill the room with light is part of the social agenda of the work, and prompts individuals to reflect on their place within a larger community.

Over the duration of the work, each colour selection is recorded to create a data set that documents the colour choices over time. In addition to documenting visitor engagement, the data contributes to Singh’s ongoing enquiry into the relationship between art and health. It provides a visceral reading of collective well-being and will be available as an open-source resource for future collaborations. For Singh, the data is a vital component of the artwork: it offers alternative insights into contemporary life that may continue to define and inspire.

Nina Tonga

1 ‘In conversation: Nina Tonga talks to Tiffany Singh’, Applause, The Arts Foundation, no. 23, 2017, pp. 18–19.