“RGB Lights: A Metaphor” By Leena Vieltojarvi
Red, blue, and green. When contrasted and collided, they create a myriad
of colors. At the place where the lights meet, you can cast your shadow over it
and the two colors which met at that point will become your shadow. That’s
most of the literal stuff, but what was the artist trying to convey on a figurative
level? What is his purpose?
My interpretation is this: the different lights could each represent an
element; red is fire, blue is water, and green is earth. Water and fire could
combine to create clouds, since the sun’s heat (fire) evaporates water and away
from the Earth, the water can cool and condense to form clouds (purple) for an
atmosphere. Earth and water could combine to create our planet Earth’s crust
(teal), since the crust is made up of earth with water and lumps of earth to create
continents. Then earth and fire could combine to create magma (molten rock,
yellow) which makes up the center of our planet, beneath the crust. Finally the
center triangle of white or light turquoise is air or the atmosphere since Earth
wouldn’t be able to support life very well without a proper atmosphere. When a
shadow is cast over the four combined colors, then it shows the two or three
other elements (colors) that were combined to create it. The entire light display
represents the Earth as a whole and the different physical aspects that go into
making it.
