materiality and the pursuit of colour
there is a gap in our understanding | sept 20 2026
i chose to name this project zat warna for several reasons. the simplest one is that it means colouring substance (dye, pigment) in malay and indonesian, and it is the term commonly used in scholarship written in either language. in both bahasa melayu and bahasa indonesia, zat = matter or substance, and warna = colour. the material basis of colour is integral to its meaning; matter (zat) is a fundamental part of the term.