The Pigment Timeline

The Pigment Timeline, created  by Jo Volley in 2014, is a visual historical timeline of natural and manufactured colour and a unique and innovative visual display of quantitative information. It is made from 180 pigments bound in gum Arabic, sequentially ordered chronologically as they emerge onto the artists’ palette from the Neolithic to the contemporary. they The framed timeline is 60” x 72” and currently on public display in the north cloisters UCL, opposite the 3 cases of pigment samples.

Volley’s timeline also acts as a drawing of intelligence to for The Pigment Timeline Project, which is investigating connections between UCL departments that involve pigment and colour in their research. The ultimate ambition is to create a Pigment Timeline that will function as a physical pathway through UCL. By identifying these areas and examining existing maps of UCL and plans of each department, a 3D computer model of single images and a simple animation will be created to reveal their association through colour, space and time. The completed project will be a manifestation of the multidisciplinary and imaginative thinking that is part of UCL tradition.

The Pigment Timeline Project is a collaborative, cross disciplinary research project being undertaken by:

Jo Volley – Artist and Senior Lecturer at the Slade School of Fine Art. Co-director of the Materials Research Project.

Dr Ruth Siddall – Geologist and conservation scientist, formerly of UCL Earth Sciences and currently part of the Office of the Vice Provost Education & Student Experience. Ruth is co-author of The Pigment Compendium.

Gary Woodley – Artist and Lecture at the Slade School of Fine Art. Co-director of the Materials Research Project.

Malina Busch – Artist and former Honorary Research Associate at Slade School of Fine Art, currently Lecturer at Morley College.

The Pigment Timeline Project is funded by the Centre for Humanities Interdisciplinary Research Projects, UCL.

Keep up-to-date on our blog: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/pigment-timeline

Photography: Sarah Pickering & Danny Treacy