Ghosts (2001) is a suite of three paintings in which spindle-shaped forms made with mineral pigment are placed over different acrylic color fields. The same form can emerge, merge with the ground, or become conspicuous as matter depending on the relation between pigment, color, and light. The three paintings are therefore not simple variations but a comparison of the conditions under which an image becomes visible.

The work began with a material question: where does the color of paint become fixed as “color”? Mineral pigment carries weight, particle size, density, and a strong response to light. Rather than using that intensity to make the image clearer, the work uses it to expose moments when perception becomes unstable. The form remains physically present even when its image seems to disappear or flare into view.

The form is materially present, yet it never becomes completely fixed as an image. Depending on the particles of the mineral pigment, the ground color, and the conditions of light, the same form can emerge or recede. Here, the question of material and color shifts toward the perceptual conditions through which something becomes an image. This problem expands into questions of the body and space in the works that follow.