Straightforward and effective electrostatic charge detection would have significant relevance in electronics assembly. Electrostatic surface charges arising from contact/separation of materials with different electron affinity cause damage of electronic components and devices at a sizeable global cost, whereas the detection of such surface charges is usually seen to be related considerable cost on equipment and in measurement time. We demonstrate here a concept for surface charge detection based on transition metal doped ZnO nanowire (NW) stable colloids in viscous amino terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). It shows a vivid brightness contrast between the (zero field) randomly oriented (brightly colored) and electric field aligned (virtually black) configurations, with response time of a few seconds or less. As the medium acts both as a detector and as a visual display, it is utterly autonomous: it needs neither any external power supply nor extra detection or display elements. The presented functional nanowire colloids have quite modest requirements on the synthesis, as the electrooptical effect is observed even with rather relaxed demands on the uniformity of nanowire diameters or lengths. We therefore see it as vitally competitive to the potential use of photonic crystals, which have shown electric field dependent optical properties and have been considered prerequisite for designing field-sensitive functional materials with naked eye optical detection, but have considerably more stringent manufacturing requirements.