“At the beginning of 1883, Joseph Hooker, Director of the Royal Botanic Garden of Kew, requested T.N. Mukharji, assistant curator of the Indian Museum of Calcutta, that he investigate a yellow substance known as piuri. This material, typically used to obtain a hue called Indian yellow, was of interest to Hooker due to its mysterious manufacturing origins. Months later, Hooker received an answer from him. According to his testimony, published later in the Journal of the Society of Arts, this pigment was manufactured in Mirzapur, in the state of Bihar (India), from the urine of cows fed exclusively with mango leaves and water. Years later, its production was prohibited and this colouring matter was replaced by yellow lacquers of vegetable origin and, more recently, by synthetic organic pigments.”
a collection of reproduced images related to travel and botany, illustrating the quest for a very special kind of yellow pigment, the artist uses both historical and personal references and materials, interweaving earlier research and knowledge with his own exploration of the subject and its rich history, with an inserted foreword by the author, text in Spanish and English, printed with red ink on (fittingly) yellow paper, loose folded riso-printed sheets in an envelope, 30,5 x 21,5 cm, 72 not numbered pages, ed/300, Salamanca 2019
ISBN: 978-84-09-11247-0
