The Ethics of Color

This summer, Yale Norfolk School of Art will offer a thematic program, made possible by Norfolk Foundation. Called “The Ethics of Color,” this program will be a series of public lectures covering divergent topics such as the language of color theory coupled with human rights legislation, color as a material witness to disaster, new materialist conceptions of brown and the environment, W.E.B. Du Bois’s infographics utilizing color and data for analysis and activism, and an 80’s art exhibition in black and white. 

Yale Norfolk’s co-directors, Byron Kim and Lisa Sigal, will seek new ways to engage audiences with The Ethics of Color presenters. The roster of speakers will influence the students’ summer dialogue in a structured way, culminating in a digital archive of these interactions. 

Yale Norfolk seeks to engage not only with Norfolk residents, but also with a broader public geographically to build a more diverse audience during the summer period. 

Receptions will follow each lecture.

The first lecture of the series will take place on May 23 from 7 to 8 p.m. at 20 Litchfield Road in Norfolk and will feature Tomashi Jackson, a faculty member in the Lesley University MFA program, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the Rhode Island School of Design. Jackson will present a discussion titled Color Problems, during which she will share a selection of projects that illustrate both failed and successful attempts at solving color problems through her work.

Future lectures are scheduled for May 30, June 7, June 13 and June 20. The remaining roster of speakers will include Aruna D’Souza, Silas Munro, Tavia Nyong’o and Susan Schuppli. 

Aruna D’Souza is a writer/critic and curator whose book Whitewalling has been well discussed in the art world since the 2017 Whitney Biennial and will talk about a show that the artist Lorraine O’Grady curated in the early 80’s called The Black and White Show. 

Silas Munro is a designer based in Los Angeles. His lecture on W.E.B. Du Bois’s “color line” diagrams will focus on these fascinating works as design, objects of activism and as drawings utilizing color. 

Tavia Nyongo will share his recent research on the posthumous writings on José Muñoz on the color brown. 

Susan Schuppli, is an artist and scholar who operates in the field of forensic architecture and teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London.     

For further information please contact Dawn Whalen, Executive Director, Norfolk Foundation, Inc. at 860-542-7185 or go to www.norfolkfoundation.net.