Shaan Syed : an interview published in Border Crossings
Border Crossings (Vol. 40, Issue 156) published an interview led by Robert Enright with Shaan Syed.
Your palette is quite intriguing. What determines your colour choices?
Colour is really important to me. I want the colour to point to something that you may not be expecting. I realized this a couple of years ago after a trip to Marrakesh. The whole city is painted this pale, dirty pink colour. I remember asking a cab driver why everything was painted that colour. I was expecting a deep historical answer. All I got was, “Oh, it’s Marrakesh; that’s the Marrakesh colour.” It made me think about colour being intrinsic to a place. Of course, upon further research you learn that the dirty pink came from the earth at some point, but now they just paint all the buildings this colour because it’s “Marrakesh pink.” It made me start thinking about colour in a very specific way: How can colour point to a different time, or a different place, or a period?
Extract from the interview with Robert Enright
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