LOCAL EXHIBITION – REVIEW 2

‘Staged and Screened’ James Brooks


Gallery 126, Queen Street, Galway. 4th-26th February 2011

REVIEW

"Art is a state of encounter" Nicolas Bourriaud in ‘Relational Art’

‘Staged and Screened’ is a solo exhibition by British artist James Brooks. This work is being shown at Gallery 126, Queen Street, Galway. 126 is an artist-led exhibition space whose ethos is based on it being non-commercial with a focus on supporting traditionally unrepresented artistic projects. It provides a platform for work that other galleries may find difficult being more bound by economic considerations. As such, 126 is earning a reputation as a space that supports experimental and emerging artists bringing cultural and artistic innovation.

The gallery is of particular geographical relevance to this exhibition of Brooks’ work with its location on the west coast of Ireland . It looks across the ocean to the US – contributing to the notions explored within the work which questions who is the symbolic ‘actor’ and who is the ‘audience’.

This interplay of actor and audience forms the inspiration for ‘Staged and Screened’. Drawing on cultural sources such as cinema, theatre, music and television, the artist produced a series of works in drawing, video, print and audio. The show in part attempts to spotlight an audience’s role within an auditorium or public space – where to sit or stand, the etiquette surrounding the appreciation of and participation in what is on view. A key aspect of the work is the exploration of the role of the viewer – the importance of a physical encounter with a work of art. This affirmation of the viewers position physically and psychologically as an integral and important component to the work itself is fascinating to me.

This is something I attempt to address in my own work – engaging the viewer emotionally and intellectually. And while the remit of the designer and design as a medium can rarely, I believe, achieve the self expression of the artist, the scope and potential that exists to speak to your viewer is immense. In my own work I strive to create a dialogue between the client, myself and the viewer, creating a piece of visual communication that by necessity can only be completed by the viewers own interpretation. Yes, in many respects the existence of an economic message affects the flow of this communication but in essence it is this aspect of consumption that drew me so much to this exhibition and threw up so many questions and parallels. I am reminded of John Bergers ‘Ways of Seeing’ where the potential ‘ideal’ for the viewer (via consumption) is considered a substitute for actual reality. Brooks himself cites Walter Benjamin's 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' as an influence. (Benjamin arguing that through reproduction, an old master painting's modern context is severed from that which existed at the time of its making.)

The viewers presence and actual experience form an integral part of the message itself and this seems to be fundamental to what Brooks is exploring, and again this is something I aim to articulate in my own work – its existence at the place where it happens to be, being viewed by whomever happens to be viewing it, and the unique response evoked. These questions and parallels really played on my mind in viewing this work. Could it be argued that perhaps ‘pure’ art assumes that what matters is its own existence, not its’ being on view, and that graphic design exemplifies this function of ‘view’ – its’ intrinsic link to social function always binding it to the viewer in this way?

The work in this exhibition, both aesthetically and conceptually, demonstrates a strong sense of logic. (Perhaps here again the artist appeals to the designer in me). One part of the exhibition presents a series of 31 audience seating layout drawings of New York City theatres. By presenting the audience as the artwork, Brooks plays with the viewer, disorientating us, urging us to question the practice of cultural consumption by intentionally inverting our expectations. This brought my thinking to the competitive nature within an audience – the notion of “cheap seats” and “best seats in the house” – the opportunity for snobbery or one-up-manship that this affords. How where you sit affects your experience - not just of the stage production - but of the social aspects aligned with it too. Perhaps the possibility of self-reinvention exists? Perhaps it is not just the actors who play at being someone else? Aesthetically the simplicity of the visuals really appealed and I applaud the breath of communication and thought provoking ability in that simplicity. My only complaint with these pen on graph paper drawing is in their scale – they seem somewhat bound and confined by their smallness, and while it could be argued that as such they possess a certain intimacy, for this viewer at least, their size diminished their potential.

Brooks’ video piece “Reversed Performance” appropriates the 1970’s Film – “Performance”, starring Mick Jagger, then at the height of his fame, in a semi-acting/ real life role. By re-filming the rewinding visuals of the thriller from the back of a television, the narrative content of the film is lost and the result is an abstract light presentation. This flicking changing light brought to mind music concerts where the light projects out into the audience from the stage position. It’s unclear (apart form perhaps the title) as to why the artist chose this film for the basis for this piece, but as I’m unfamiliar with the film itself it was something I was left questioning. The visual effect itself was an interesting one however, and while message of ‘inverted’ audience was again being made in this piece the artist took a very different approach.

The analysis of the engagement of an audience – be it active or passive – was continued with the audio work ’Absent Friends’. In this piece Brooks edits out the narrative and visual content of a generic episode of the American TV series Friends, leaving just the sporadic punctuation of canned audience laughter for its duration. I really liked this piece, and again despite the simplicity of its’ delivery, it did not fail to trigger many questions. While it may seem there is real vacuousness to the canned laughter and that this work maybe highlights its use as a synthetic device, it also brought my thinking back to the notion of audience reassurance e.g. ‘yes – this bit is funny’ or ‘ its ok to escape – laugh with us’. It reminded me too of some aspects that occur in my own world of design and advertising where in selling a product, the viewer is often lulled into a similar sense of belonging (if we make you think its funny by adding the laughter, then you will find yourself laughing along – marketers use this approach all the time). Once again back to the notion of consumption I mentioned earlier. This work also had an unnerving element to it after a while, where the laughter became uncomfortable in its controlled nature, becoming sneering and later dictatorial almost.

The internal exhibition space at Gallery 126 did not work entirely well for this show on some levels and there was room for improvement in the way in which some the works were presented in my opinion. The works at ground level suffered somewhat in their placement so low down and there may have been a benefit in creating ‘snug’ type spaces for the video work. All in all I found ‘Staged and Screened’ to be enormously enjoyable and wonderfully thought provoking. Traditional conventions were ignored and the artist succeeded in creating an intriguing show where the viewer and the viewed become cyclical elements – where the audience became the show and the show became the audience.

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION – REVIEW 1

AIGA "50 BOOKS / 50 COVERS"

December 9th 2010 - April 11th 2011,
AIGA National Design Centre, 64 Fifth Avenue, New York

50 Books / 50 Covers selections are also published in AIGA’s online archives.

(click yellow link above to view exhibition)

The collection will also be preserved in the AIGA Design Archives at the Denver Art Museum in Colorado. In addition, selections from each year’s “50 Books/50 Covers” competition are housed in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University.

“AIGA Design Archives is one of the richest online resources available to those who practice, study and appreciate great design. It represents the quality of work being created, as well as shifting aesthetics and sensibilities of the designers of the day.”

REVIEW

AIGA’s “50 Books/50 Covers” is a competition resulting in an annual exhibition that recognises excellence in book design and production. This exhibition showcases the best-designed books and book covers published in 2009, as selected by a distinguished jury that includes David Drummond (Salamander Hill Design, Quebec), Paul Kepple (Headcase Design, Philadelphia), Peter Mendelsund (Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, New York), Molly Renda (North Carolina State University, Raleigh) and Tracey Shiffman (Shiffman & Kohnke, Los Angeles).

The exhibition design that frames this collection has visual impact but is, in a few respects at least, problematic. The height of the display benches relative to the viewer seems too low; the tiered benches, upon which the books sit, lack adequate depth so that the books overhang (and no doubt fall off as viewers on a higher tier brush past); and, while the exhibits may be picked up and held, the layout relies on the careful return of books to the benches by each viewer - the integrity of the display becoming compromised with careless placement. Finally, there is no seating provided for a comfortable browse or a thoughtful ponder, this is book exhibition after all and the hardness of the exhibition environment is a deal breaker for me.

The online exhibition space however is a far more successfully designed environment. The content is presented in a distinct way, with narratives that place it in context and explain its relevance. The user interface for the display and navigation of the exhibits is intuitive and offers the viewer 4 viewing options (from thumbnails of sliding scale, to multiple views of the key exhibits and their accompanying descriptions from the designers and even comments from the juror/curators). In addition there is a listing of the industry sectors from which the projects have been drawn and a geographical breakdown of the design studios involved in their making. It’s well considered and thorough. A gold star moment certainly.

This is a very full and expansive body of work with 100 individual projects on show, and with many featuring multiple samples of the book layout within the online exhibition environment. The most noteworthy element that immediately strikes the viewer is the sheer variety of styles encompassed here. While a number of design studios have numerous submissions (Rodrigo Corral have 10, Phoenix Color Corporation showing 6 for example) the fact is, of course, that even within the same design studio we are presented with wide variation of styles depending on the nature of the brief and the subject matter of the book itself. The restraint in the execution of the exhibition and the pacing afforded by the on line show, help to unify the large variety of differing design styles included, and provide unmediated access to the work.

It is in this wonderful variety that the richness of the experience of this exhibition emerges, with everything from modernist-made-new – see “F1984T2008”, by Golden Tree, Korea, (exhibit 30), to the poetic expression of designs such as “30 Beautiful Everyday Sounds” by Why Not Smile, New York (exhibit 98). This is an exhibition that reframes notions of conceptual design, modernist restraint, rich exuberance and measured formatting.

The viewer is presented with a body of work where elegantly set text partners with succinct imagery, and where radical, sometimes fierce, sometimes sober, typography is married with imaginative and engaging communication. It is all artfully blended together to create a unified whole. There is a smart sense of flow to the curation and the result is a visual delight that is accessible, engaging and not in the least bit precious – just as it should be given the nature of the items on show.

There are a few exhibits which are, for this viewer, noteworthy in their sheer excellence.
“Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types” (exhibit 97) by Werner Design Werks Inc. is a joy to behold and quite literally sent me running to Amazon to snap it up. The book features illustrations of ‘beasties’ created using the letterform their name begins with - so far so clever - but in addition to this, at the bottom of each page, there is a charming letter guide that demonstrates great understanding of the end user – a curious and observant child. Here we are artfully informed that “a lowercase ‘a' can be a ball and stick” or that “a lowercase ‘a’ can wear a little hood”. As the mother of an eager to learn 4 year old this is simple genius that clearly explains this typographic anomaly. Alphabeasties shows children that typography can be fun and that “although a Clarendon 'g' looks completely different from a Futura 'g', they both make the same g sound”. This book also features die cuts and foldouts that ensure children engage with it and have fun as they learn and discover.

“Ideas + Buildings Vol. 02: Perspective-Global Context” (exhibit 58) designed by Perkins + Will, Atlanta, Georgia is the second in a series of books that showcases 20 of the firms’ projects and aims to communicate the cultural inspirations that shape their work, and indeed the culture of the firm itself. The result is a book that possesses true graphic sensibilities, where aesthetics meet functionality with impeccable aplomb. The discerning typographic treatments are a lesson in ‘how to’ for the uninitiated, with sleek styling, effective font choices and bold sizing of elements such as the section numbers. From its information design elements, to its kicking colour palate, to its bold imagery this is a success on so many levels. Its designer, Mimi Day, has considered every box – and wholeheartedly and creatively ticked each one.

There is a catalogue for artist "Shelagh Keeley", designed by Underline Studio, Toronto, (exhibit 88) that I also feel merits special mention. In addition to the beautiful typography and layout, the catalogue features a cover that is nearly 40 inches in length, which the reader is required to unwrap in order to reveal the essays and the artwork within. This echoes beautifully the artists major work – an almost 10 meter long painting.

This is a hugely enjoyable exhibition and competently demonstrates the breath of current design practice in this field. What is a little disappointing is the degree of bias towards US based design firms. While the work of some Asian and European studios feature, there is a degree of absence here and this does take from the international flavour of the exhibition. The AIGA is an American organisation and all but one juror are also American so perhaps a degree of preference is enevitable, if a little shortsighted.

In an age of digital publishing, of websites, e-readers and electronic papers it is easy to get distracted or diverted, and there is still something indescribably wonderful about opening a book. A traditionally printed and published book is indeed an artefact – the crack of the spine as the binding flexes, the smell of the freshly printed ink, the paper, the typography – all contribute to the readers experience of the content. This exhibition is testament to an industry that “stoically avoids the regular rumours of its demise… the process of making books – with worthwhile text, good typography and inspiring covers – still lives.” (John L Walters). All in all, the AIGA’s commitment to “using selections from its annual competitions to demonstrate the process of design, the role of the designer, and the value of design to business, culture and society at large” has been evidenced in this show and the result is an exhibition that glows as brightly as the monitor it was viewed on!

Contemporary Art and Design Critique

"Criticism prises open doors, reveals unforeseen possibilities, enhances our awareness, refines our values, hones our taste and exerts a myriad of influences on the judgements, decisions and actions we will take in the future. Whether we are fully conscious of this web of inspiration or not, criticism helps to shape our mentality."

Rick Poynor

KEY IDEAS ABOUT CRITICAL WRITING...

* Anyone can have an opinion -
'everyone's a critic' but in a limited sense. For criticism to have value, for it to be useful to other people and make a contribution to the area of activity it covers, it needs to come from close study and deep knowledge. Critics must be specialists in whatever area is being discussed, without this understanding and the ability that comes with it to make comparisons and arrive at carefully considered judgements, a weighted and trustworthy criticism is simply not possible. Without the critic having specialism, the opinion often seems to flit with excitement about the latest thing, often without seeming to acknowledge what it doesn’t know. Think twitter, Amazon reader reviews and the Reality TV phenonema - 'your' vote counts

* Conveying a sense of the critic
Critical writing should reveal something of the individual - a sense of who he/she is, what they stand for, what they value, what they believe, a strong and consistent personal point of view. The critics' weaknesses may be apparent too, but the crucial thing, for me as a reader, is that their vision of the work has depth and makes sense — that it adds something to my own understanding when I read them. Even if you disagree with what the critic says, you should feel that the criticism is considered and coherent and, in that sense, reliable.

* A critic must be prepared to go against prevailing opinion
and take a stand when necessary. If all the critic does is to reinforce the general view within a discipline and prop up the status quo, then that isn’t really criticism. Genuine criticism will provoke strong reactions and people on the receiving end of adverse criticism will probably hate it. That shouldn’t stop the critic.

* Detachment
Design critisism needs to find a way of staying close to its subject while maintaining a sceptical distance. This is not easy to pull off. Designers who turn to writing have an initial advantage – they already inhabit this world – but naturally then find it difficult to achieve detachment; they worry about their design colleagues’ reactions to what they write.(see previous point also)

* Change in contemporary reading -
ie much is done on line rather than in print so there is an increasing tendency for readers to scan and graze rather than engage in attentive and indepth reading, this has a big impact in the realm of critical writing in relation to the depth of the writing and the intimacy of the writing and reader with the subject matter

* Design is a fusion of commerce and culture.
For design criticism to develop, we need to place a great deal more emphasis on investigating the cultural implications of that union. So design criticism needs to be genuinely critical. This is taken for granted in other kinds of cultural reviewing and criticism: films, novels, plays, art exhibitions and music are all subject to continuous evaluation. The reader’s awareness that merciless criticism is possible when necessary, means that favourable judgements are more reliable and trustworthy when they are read. In the specialist design press design work often gets an easy ride, and design 'critisism' can seem to function as a PR platform in many respects. While in general media it is often viewed as a specialist subject where it is written about like a lightweight consumer subject. It is difficult to find serious, well-informed, mainstream design criticism.

* Language
There is a big difference between art and design critisism. "Design writing on the whole is much clearer, much more inclined to use plain English and is as a consequenc much more exposed? By comparison with art writing, design writing can seem obvious, under-theorised and naive, especially to anyone reading from an art point of view who’s come to expect those superficially impressive trails of circumlocution as a sign of weighty content" (Rick Poynor)

* Context
The context of the work being critiqued is also an important aspect of the critisism itself. Where the work is to be placed and the function of the design is inextricably linked to its success as a piece of work. Critisism should encourage debate and be a forum for us to question.

Rick Poynor, My Design Writing Hero

Since my very beginnings as a design student I have been a huge admirer of Rick Poynor. He began as a general visual arts journalist, working on Blueprint magazine in London. After founding Eye magazine, which he edited from 1990 to 1997, he focused increasingly on visual communication. He co-founded Design Observer (see the RSS feed on this blog), a weblog for design writing and discussion, with William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut. His writings document and analyse general movements in graphic design and typography and explore the cultural implications of visual communication, including advertising, photography, typography, branding and graphic design. Over the years I have found myself constantly in agreement or intrigued by his viewpoint. In short the man is a hero of mine, as a home printed T-shirt from college days testifies... "Rick Knows."

Below is just a comment from him on the EYE magazine blog.

In it he is commenting in response to the article entitled -
"Art bollocks is everywhere you look. Woolly ‘artspeak’ is nothing new, but who will stem the flow?"


RICK POYNOR SAYS:
Agree with this so far as it goes, but it’s an old story.

Matthew Collings, for instance, has built a writing career out of declining to write art bollocks. He’s so clear, so straightforward, so demotic, so assertively moral in his judgements that it’s almost shocking. He’s also committed to aesthetic values. And that’s one of contemporary art’s big problems. Once you demote beauty, deny the importance of the retinal, elevate the ‘idea’ to a position of untouchable pre-eminence and abandon the notion that criticism’s task is the evaluation of quality, how exactly are you going to demonstrate the importance of art? Especially now that art has been so thoroughly assimilated, institutionalised and domesticated, as a degree-awarding academic subject like any other.

But how does all this relate to design writing, which on the whole is much clearer, much more inclined to use plain English and is as a consequence – for the reasons David Thompson explains – much more exposed? By comparison with art writing, design writing can seem obvious, under-theorised and naive, especially to anyone reading from an art point of view who’s come to expect those superficially impressive trails of circumlocution as a sign of weighty content. (In truth, though, art writing is often highly sophisticated and at the same time perfectly intelligible to an educated reader – just pull down a copy of October.)

So is there a comparable form of design bollocks, David, and, if so, who’s doing it, where can we find it, and how is it a problem? Surely the main issue in design writing remains the comparative lack of the stuff, rather than a surfeit of bollocks. It will be interesting to see how the new design writing courses at SVA and LCC handle this issue. Who are their critical models and what kinds of writing do these courses seek to encourage?

Rick, I concur.

Live@8: "The Potential of Vacancy"

vacancy:
emptiness, lack of thought, idleness, unoccupied position, gap

The various video installations at last nights' event in Galway dealt with these themes: empty houses, empty landscapes, empty minds. While the setting itself promised atmosphere and vibrancy, along with the promise of subversive and emergent expression, for me, the show disappointed. With the exception of Trisha McCrea's "What Do We See" and Ella Bertillson's untitled piece examining a journey home through memory, the work in many ways seemed vacuous, and not in the manner intended.

While I freely admit my sensibilities towards this type of work is wanting, I can only contextualise it from my own perspective. Or to put it somewhat more succinctly, "every lens distorts reality, so we can never be sure ours is the right set. I’ll have to get by with my personal lenses. I call the left one think and the right one feel."

Art, for me is a medium that helps us to question, observe and understand the world, and ourselves. Live@8 while having the potential to encourage us to question and understand, abandoned the value of aesthetic and the idea dominated entirely, the concept became 'king'.... Or maybe that should be 'emperor', the one with the new clothes.

Starting To VET

Typography Served features top work in categories such as typeface design, lettering, illustrated typography, or any piece with a strong typographic treatment.

"Served" is a collection of sites that showcase category-specific content from the Behance Network, the world's leading platform for creative professionals across all industries. Projects featured on the "served" sites are selected by a Behance curatorial team.

Finding the Served and Behance sites has been a total revelation for me - in relation to VET and my personal viewing pleasure. I don't know when I last got so utterly immersed in design work. It's a fantastic feeling to get so stimulated, energised and inspired, a real touchstone. I'm really looking forward to this VET activity. It's great to be looking outwards again after the past few months of gazing in and at myself. Yippee!

My first album

Just tried this for a bit of mindless fun... It's all the rage on face book it appears.
But it makes good use of the participatory web! Give it a go and release your inner graphic designer. I admit though it made my talents feel a bit redundant!! It could be fun to put together a little mini exhibition of all our efforts - one from everyone in the audience?!
Here's what to do.......

1. Go to wikipedia and hit random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. 2. Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. 3. Go to flickr and click on 'explore the last seven days'. The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. 4. Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. 5. Post it with this text in the caption and tag the friends you want to join in.