In 1872 Charles Darwin wrote “ The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals“, an essay in which he stated that all living beings experience a universal range of emotions which, by the behavioral expression, are very similar.

He precisely identified seven of them: anger, fear, surprise, disgust, joy, sadness and contempt.
More than 140 years later, for its second edition, the London Design Biennale has chosen as the central theme of the event the Emotional States and the way in which design manages to influence them at different levels.

To communicate the event, which will begin in September at Somerset House, the award-winning agency Pentagram has decided to start from Darwin’s “seven universal emotions” asking paper artist Andy Singleton to reinterpret them with paper masks.
Using the colors that were already the protagonists of the first edition – orange, black and white – the artist has created lively masks with intricate and disturbing expressions that represent the most common feelings in an abstract way.

The paper sculptures, then photographed by John Ross, aim to emphasize how every individual, regardless of sex, age and culture, can’t escape from living the Emotional States analyzed by the famous naturalist.