Wednesday 06 February 2019 – Lunchtime seminar with Dr Sharon Kivland (Reader in Fine Art)

Speaker: Dr Sharon Kivland (Reader in Fine Art)
Title: Arise, wretched of the earth

At a research seminar on Wednesday 06 February Sharon Kivland will talk about a recent exhibition Die Holzdiebe (ZAK, Zitadelle, Berlin 2018-9).

Collectively, the animals of the forest rise up with an instinctive sense of right, gathering the alms of nature, their roots positive and legitimate. They resist that their customary rights should become the monopoly of the rich. They assemble and assert their rights. The stoats have news from France. They ask what property is and the birds reply that it is theft. The squirrels refuse any definition of property that privileges the wealthy, and propose a social solidarity. The weasels cry out that they are nature and nature is theirs alone. The fox maintains that a customary right by its very nature can only be a right of a lowest, property-less, and elemental class. The lynx and badger will fight against any plundering of the commons. None will accept punishment where there is no crime.

The exhibition is founded on Karl Marx’s articles for the Rheinische Zeitung (October 1842), reporting on the proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly, ‘Debates on the law of thefts of wood’, and a number of commentaries thereon, in particular Daniel Bensaïd’s book Les dépossédés.

1.00PM – 2.00PM
WEDNESDAY 06 FEBRUARY 2019
HPO MA DESIGN STUDIO 16.1.16

Dr Sharon Kivland is a Reader in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. Find out more about Sharon Kivland’s books and other works here.