Flares of a Dark Spectrum

Seventy one 35 mm slides · various pigments & binders · slide projector · lecture performance, 2026

Flares of a Dark Spectrum is an exploratory reseach project comprised of seventy one 35 mm slides (some intervened with various pigments) and a slide projector, activated with a lecture performance. It approaches colour as a material spectre, through an archaeology of geographical vibrations that pulse in the present with the force of a ghost. Considering legacies of scientific knowledge (and ignorance) production, the slideshow intertwines the consequences of their related and deeply entangled technical, cultural, mystical, and political proclivities.

This research on alternative genealogies of color aims to interrogate the substances’ socioecological scars, while also opening up a dialogue on the articulation of their legibility and potential processes of reparation. Taking as point of departure the eight pigments (orpiment, malachite, copper oxide, realgar, red lead, azurite, cinnabar, and lapislazuli), used in the eight monochrome paintings of Sigmar Polke’s Farbtafeln (Color Panels, 1986–92), the project examines pigments as part of larger stories of trade, illness, colonialism, and environmental violence.

FLARES OF A DARK SPECTRUM
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