Tyrian Purple is an ancient pigment derived from the mucus of Murex snails. The collection of extraordinary numbers of snails was required to produce tiny quantities of dye. Unsurprisingly this rarity made purple the colour of Kings and Clerics, its price once exceeding (weight for weight) precious metals. Almost miraculously, the ancient cloth became more intense with use and weathering. Its mythical discovery is captured in Rubens’ 1636 painting “Hercules’ Dog Discovers Purple Dye”. "Tyrian (Triptych)” comes from an ongoing series of chromatic studies. Its 'pigments' are anodised aluminium cups, the obsolete kind stacked into sets of six in leatherette cases. These objects have been coloured by time and use – the rarest are the world-worn, a patina that can only be achieved through years of use, highlighting the strange contradictions, and changing values of materials. The high and the low, the ancient and contemporary, converge in a new Still Life.