The Easel

The toxic colour that comes from volcanoes

A hymn to the colour orange. Until modern pigments, orange came from processing the sulphurous deposits around volcanic vents. Laden with arsenic, the substance was dangerous to process, but in high demand. “A savvy arbiter between resolute red and unyielding yellow, orange is a pigment that pivots … between contrary states of being – this world and another, life and death”.