Artist Stuart Semple – Color as Inspiration, Performance Art, And Rebellion

“Why do we need art?” and other highly philosophical questions

It’s fanboy time again. You get to see me barely contain my excitement as I speak to a hero of mine, the incredible artist Stuart Semple. I ask some tough questions about art and color. Strike that: none of the questions are tough, but the answers are wonderful.

Stuart Semple is a multidisciplinary British artist who works in painting, sculpture, happenings, technology, and activism. He is well known for his sociologically engaged works, which often discuss youth politics, accessibility, and democracy.

“Art is how humanity learns from one another. From our history, our legacy, it learns what we are.”

~Stuart Semple

Stuart is no stranger to controversy; in 2015, artist and sculptor Anish Kapoor obtained the rights to Vantablack, the darkest paint ever to be mass-produced. Semple felt that no such imposition ought to be made on color and set off to create Pinkie – The Barbiest Pink (a reaction to Mattel’s trademarked Barbie Pink) — and eventually — Black 4.0, his own take on the darkest commercially available pigment, which is available for sale to anyone (provided that they are not Anish Kapoor, as per the end user agreement!)

Listen to Stuart and I discuss creation, emotion, performance art, and color.

Mentioned in this episode

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Let me know how you are going with The Color Timer Podcast! if you have something to add, or if you have more questions you wish I had asked then I’d love to hear from you.

– Vincent