In the last meeting before summer, we will be reading an article by Susan Best, titled Lygia Clark (1920-1988) – Bodily Sensation and Affect: Expression as Communion, which was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art in 2006. Dr. Susan Best is senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Her research focuses on modern and contemporary art, with a particular emphasis on women’s art, conceptual art and Latin American art. Her forthcoming book Visualizing Feeling: Affect and the Feminine Avant-garde looks at four highly influential female artists: Eva Hesse, Lygia Clark, Ana Mendieta and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and explores how their art transformed established avant-garde protocols by introducing an affective dimension.

We are also reading a text by Brian Holmes, the Affectivist Manifesto, which can be read on his website. Brian Holmes is an art critic, cultural theorist and activist, particularly involved with the mapping of contemporary capitalism. He has taken part in and written about many of the large demonstrations against corporate globalization around the world. His latest book, Escape the Overcode: Activist Art in the Control Society (2010) was published by WHW/Van Abbemuseum and is available in full at brianholmes.wordpress.com