Résumé

COLORMARKS and DARK MATTERs

Expanded Lecture by Rozbeh Asmani and Tom Fecht

The expanded lecture investigates properties of color invisible to the naked human eye. The relationship of color control and power will be Rozbeh Asmani’s point of departure to explore the invisible aspects of color embracing an unexpected fan of artistic strategies interacting with economic, social and scientific points of view. But the invisible aspects of color will be simultaneously explored in very opposite directions. The lecturer’s discourse will expand into an unexpected dialogue without warning: From the monochrome depth and diversity of natures burning blackness towards the cool aesthetics of industrial color monopoly and corporate brand communication.

Black as a color includes a vast spectrum of contemporary shades combined with a high charge of cultural codes and transformative meanings. As a non-color black seems to share it’s profound magic with the unknown while giving a household name to astronomy’s black matters. There seems to be no accident, that the most recent scientific proof of existence for Dark Matter reanimated phantasies around the globe. This will be the context introducing DARK MATTERs by German photo-artist Tom Fecht. The umbrella term covers a recent body of marine night photography that investigates notions of color, time and space while reminding us that over 95% on the universe remains unknown Dark Matter. These minimalist works cross the line between the physical world and the invisible, magic part of our universe while pushing photography to the edge of quantum physics. Expanding the color-limits of the night became the artist’s photographic signature; exploring light beyond the visible spectrum created his photographic brand.

COLORMARKS by Iranian artist Rozbeh Asmani is the outcome of an on-going research into the field of color trademarks registered at the German Patent and Trademark Office. The silk screens and digital C-Prints explore a specific range of colors protected by trademark law in their respective fields of usage: The yellow- green color design of gas stations owned by an oil multinational as well as the brown van and overall of a global courier or the dark-blue round of a skin crème box. One glance is often enough to remind us not only of the very trademark, but also of our daily encounter with these products and services. Asmani’s work visualizes the impact of color monopoly on our collective memory when used exclusively by corporations as part of their brand identities. Confronted with the question what these colors stand for our attention is drawn towards industrial complexity linking color, power and memory.

The research of both artists spotlight the transformation of contemporary color skills in art and photography and stimulate an innovative perspective on color-mapping and invisible color ownership. But the usage of color and non-color in contemporary artistic practice is also part of a much larger global discourse raising profound questions, if any substantial difference between culture and nature can be further maintained.

www.rozbehasmani.de
www.tomfecht.com

The presentation is primarily based on a visual dialog co-delivered by Mr. Fecht and Mr. Asmani.