Author Archives: Tessa Laird

About Tessa Laird

Tessa Laird is a writer, artist and sometime lecturer who lives in Auckland, New Zealand. She completed a Doctorate of Fine Arts at University of Auckland in 2012 and published her resulting writings on color A Rainbow Reader the following year, link. Tessa was part of Freedom Farmers: New Zealand Artists Growing Ideas at Auckland Art Gallery in 2013 and has written for Art New Zealand, Art and Australia, and numerous catalogs.

Getting the Blues – Sex, Words and the Hues

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Tessa Laird

How William H Gass’s take on the shade of blue, gives Tessa Laird the Blues – while examining sex, writing and the power of the color itself. Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, The Arts | Tagged Blue, Derek Jarman, Maggie Nelson, Rebecca Solnit, William H Gass | Leave a comment

The Other Side: The Rainbow Reader Part VI

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Tessa Laird

Part VI of Tessa Laird’s social history of color examines violet, pansies and death. Continue reading →

Posted in The Arts | Tagged ayahuasca, Dennis McKenna, Gravity's Rainbow, Max Nordau, Robert Mapplethorpe, Terence McKenna, violet, Yukio Mishima | Leave a comment

Cops and Commercials: The Rainbow Reader Part V

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Tessa Laird

Part V of Tessa Laird’s 6-part series on the social history of color examines blue, the color of cops, commercials, peacocks, drugs and the jungle. Continue reading →

Posted in The Arts | Tagged A Rainbow Reader, ayahuasca, D.H. Lawrence, Derek Jarman, Isaac Newton, Terence McKenna, Tessa Laird, William Burroughs, William Gass | Leave a comment

They Sing in Ancient Green, The Rainbow Reader Part IV

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Tessa Laird

Part IV of Tessa Laird’s 6-part series on the social history of color examines green, the color of love, not to mention environmentalism. Continue reading →

Posted in The Arts | Tagged Ed Ruscha, Eric Rohmer, Henry David Thoreau, John Baldessari, Linda Montano, Peter Lamborn Wilson, Rainbow Reader, Tehching Hsieh, The Secret Life of Plants, William Burroughs | 1 Comment

Canary-Colored Runway into the Sun, The Rainbow Reader Part III

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Tessa Laird

Part III of Tessa Laird’s 6-part series on the social history of color examines yellow from Van Gogh to Kandinsky, suicide and sunshine. Continue reading →

Posted in The Arts | Tagged A Rainbow Reader, Alexander Theroux, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Rainbow Reader, Tessa Laird, Van Gogh, yellow | 1 Comment

A Tiger’s Leap Into History, The Rainbow Reader Part II

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Tessa Laird

Part II of Tessa Laird’s 6-part series on the social history of color takes on orange, from construction to Agent Orange, war to peace, LSD and religion. Continue reading →

Posted in The Arts | Tagged A Rainbow Reader, Agent Orange, Alexander Theroux, ayahuasca, Color, Daniel Malone, Gravity's Rainbow, LSD, Michael Taussig, orange, Sam Durant, Tessa Laird, Thomas Pynchon, vietnam, William Burroughs, WWII, Yves Klein | Leave a comment

The Red Thread, The Rainbow Reader Part I

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Tessa Laird

Part I of Tessa Laird’s 6-part series on the social history of color takes in the dark beating heart of red, moving from the personal to the political from Marx to the Middle East. Continue reading →

Posted in The Arts | Tagged Alexander Theroux, Antony Gormley, art, ayahuasca, Color, Derek Jarman, goethe, John Berger, Karl Marx, Labour, newton, Wiliam Gass | Leave a comment