Bilateral ‘Teman’ BIL 003

Oiticica continually coined new words to describe his work. Bilateral was a term he invented to designate works which move away from traditional, two-dimensional painting (which he called the ‘painting-picture’), to what he called ‘non-objects’ painted on both sides and suspended from the ceiling. The Bilaterals, such as this one called ‘Teman’, all explore close-colour contrasts and, in particular, the properties of white, identified by Oiticica as the ‘ideal light-colour, the synthesis-light of all colours’.