Non-design. From the Object to Survival

Colour is seen as shocking, confrontational, superficial, and dangerous because its absence has been so carefully constructed over the past century as being the embodiment of everything it is supposedly not, with the absence of colour coming to represent depth, sophistication, seriousness, and gravitas, while colour (unless supremely limited and controlled) was the embodiment of everything frivolous, or savage. It was, and still is, to be ridiculed, or feared. It is quite easy looking back now to see how the othering of colour was a vital ingredient in the separation of serious mainstream modernity in western culture from all of those troublesome queers, women, immigrants and colonial subjects who, because no doubt the upper echelons of colourless world culture were reserved only for a select few immensely dull but self-anointed-as-enlightened men, continued to utilise colour, pattern and the diversity of aesthetic expression that has always existed on this beautiful planet to express themselves. The absence of colour has, since the enlightenment, been a way for colonial culture to differentiate itself from the rest of the world, and internally, a way of keeping a clear separation between the difficult complexity and diversity of a rapidly evolving society, from those who see themselves as guiding it. Colour for the masses, let them watch Disney. Colour for the women, let them have their pastel kitchens. Colour for the queers, let them decorate the department stores. Colour for the immigrants, let them dress up for their weddings. But no respect. This relationship to colour has been drilled into us from the 18th century onwards, a form of social control and stratification that is reified through taste. There is a reason that protest movements harness the power of the rainbow to such powerful effect; it smashes through this. There is a reason why still to this day deploying an abundant and unapologetic range of colours in a manner beyond the accepted level of sophisticated restrain deemed tasteful is a shocking act that infuriates so many. Colour should not be radical, but unfortunately, it is.

UFO, Sherwood Restaurant, Florence, 1969, Titti Maschietto Archives, Florence