Ian Whittlesea

On Colour… extends the theories of color harmony that Joahnnes Itten taught at the Bauhaus and describes how "through perfect control of breath and color one will eventually be able to generate a luminous cloud of such purity and intensity that it renders all inside it invisible.

Beautifully designed and printed, it describes how one can, potentially, produce the "white cloud of invisibility" and documents the author's own attempts to manifest the cloud.

These manifestations have a complex group of antecedents that include Lawrence Weiner's early spray-painted works, John Latham's One Second Drawings, Robert Irwin's luminous disc paintings of the 1960s and representations of the ineffable made by spiritualists and occultists.

Both an artist's book and a would-be practical guide, this beautiful little book offers occult instructions for becoming invisible by meditating on the color spectrum. It draws on the literature of Rosicrucianism, theosophy and esoteric yoga to demonstrate how, through breathing exercises and visualization, the reader can learn to split light into its constituent parts, then recombine the seven colours of the spectrum to form a glowing white cloud that envelops its creator, rendering him or her invisible.

Its author, London-based artist Ian Whittlesea—well known for his book works based on spiritual-physical exercises, such as Yves Klein: The Foundations of Judo and Mazdaznan Health & Breath Culture—notes in the preface: "These exercises are intended to allow you to become invisible. This does not, however, mean that you will physically disappear or dematerialize. Instead you will be hidden from view, concealed within a cloud of your own creation."Gorgeous colour abstractions by Whittlesea illustrate the book throughout.