Marx, Color, Politics: A Live Presentation by Iona Singh (Online Group Video Session – October 20th 2020)

Yves Klein, Great Blue Anthropophagy, Homage to Tennessee Williams, 1960

“Man lives on nature – means that nature is his body, with which he must remain in continuous interchange if he is not to die. That man’s physical and spiritual life is linked to nature means simply that nature is linked to itself, for man is a part of nature. In estranging from man (1) nature, and (2) himself, his own active functions, his life activity, estranged labor estranges the species from man.”

Karl Marx from XXIV Estranged Labour: The 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (page 67, Progress Publishers 1967, translated by Martin Milligan)

Iona Singh, author of the book Color, Facture, Art and Design will be talking about the role of color as a primal sensory link between humans and nature and hence the political and philosophical impact of its use in industrial production, in the designed and built environment and in the fine-arts; using examples of work from the artists Vermeer and Yves Klein to define color as a profoundly affective visceral phenomenon entwined with human evolution, the unconscious and consciousness.

This session will be run as part of the Exploding Appendix Avant-garde Art Practice and Research Group’s fortnightly meetup, which, in the event of the current lockdown, will be taking place online via Zoom.  (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84718823578)The meeting ID is 847 1882 3578. This session will be run by Iona Singh and take place on the 20th October from 19:30 – 22:30 (British Summer Time). If you would like to join us for the session, or have any questions please message me at explodingappendix@gmail.com

Follow the event on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/620233105528882/