Yellow

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe believed that yellow was the first colour transmitted from light (150). Discussing the psychology of colour and emotion, he identified yellow as a ‘plus’ colour, emphasizing its ‘serene, gay, softly exciting character [and] warm and agreeable impression’ (306). However, he also acknowledged that yellow can be contaminated easily and when it is sullied, it has a very disagreeable effect: By a slight and scarcely perceptible change, the beautiful impression of fire and gold is transformed into one not undeserving the epithet foul; and the color of honour and joy reversed to that of ignominy and aversion. (308) The prose poems in this chapbook address this yellow dualism: the ‘softly exciting’ and the ‘disagreeable’. They prioritise light and equally explore the absence of it. They also refer to J. W. M. Turner’s innovations around yellow, which he used in both his oil and watercolour paintings. Between 1814 and 1815, Turner moved from using Indian Yellow to Chrome Yellow. While Chrome Yellow was a bright, opaque yellow pigment, it darkened upon exposure to light. Renoir called this a ‘nasty trick’ (André, 22). Analogically, many of the prose poems in this chapbook explore disappointment and transience – perhaps even the Frostian sentiment that ‘nothing gold can stay’. They include allusions to classic literature that prioritises yellow (most notably Stevie Smith’s, Aldous Huxley’s and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s novels). These prose poems also make reference to contemporary studies into the psychology of colour, which have demonstrated that yellow increases appetite, respiration rate and is often connected with food (Rikard, n.p). In this chapbook, yellow is the colour of hunger and abandonment.