On Expression

This brief essay reflects on the concept of expressionism in Gilles Deleuze's work on Spinoza, and addresses the relationship between forms of content and forms of expression as discussed by Deleuze and Félix Guattari when they introduce a minor literature. We address how modes of expression – expressing, expressed, expresses – can enable liberatory movements of creative resistance, and yet, how expression can be cut short thereby devolving into sad passions. We argue that a re-engagement in expressionism offers ways of collectively and creatively resisting what is most oppressive in this world, suffering as it is amid a polycrisis.