The Design Museum

I visited the design museum, the other day as I was looking for the 50 years of Helvetica exhibition. However this appeared to be a small exhibition in the Cafe area. I had a look but most of the images I had seen on the blanka website that I had recently discovered. I must admit I did like the way the work was positioned in the cafe area, it suggested that this place was serious and enthusiastic about design as it was filtered everywhere. I found the display obscure. It based its ideas

Therefore I led myself to the two other main exhibitions Zaha Hadid, Architecture and Design, as well as a graphic design exhibition names Friendly Fire by Johnathan Barmbrook. Both are rather influential and interesting.

I first saw Zaha Hadid's exhibition. The first room her later work was in a darker room with spot lights, that I felt created a good atmosphere for her Russian constructivist work. Hadid was born in Baghdad in 1950, and came to London in 1972. She has created 'Urban master pieces to domestic objects and furniture.'




Her work uses radical geometry, which is formed from the influential period Russian constructivism. I found her paintings rather abstract considering they where based on architecture. This may be due to the sheer amount of detail, the angles of the work, and how the architecture is stretched across the entire canvas. She manages to go beyond basic forms, which almost makes the work hard to look at. Work I particularly liked was ‘The Divers,’ as it showed the designs in use. It seems that the paintings are the basis of her architecture designs that are then drawn up using layers of acetate and then models are created.

Upstairs in the museum the exhibition is extended. It appears more contemporary than the selection down stairs. The curve seems to be embraced, where before Sharpe angles appeared to be the trend. I preferred these designs. They appear more fluid. The design bellow almost appears living.



The second exhibition was called Friendly Fire by Jonathan Barmbrook. His work made rather admirable bold statements about rather serious worldly issues. I felt inspired by the strength of this work, It makes you desire such graphic jobs to work on yourself, however such strong ideas need to be expressed well and loudly to be successful. 'And this designer doesn’t hesitate when offered the opportunity to dive into ideological waters and deliberately swim in political ponds.' http://www.fontshop.com/features/fontmag/002/02_barnbrook/. He espiers to 'graphic design having a vital role to play in influencing ideological landscapes of society.'

A particular piece of work I liked was his magazine ad busters 'a graphically-designed magazine devoted to numerous political and social causes, and run by an organisation aiming to 'advance the new social activist movement of the information age' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Barnbrook. One image I saw was a straight image comparison on a beer gut belly and a young Childs belly from Africa, the images were very hard hitting without any effort.



He suggests that 'designers should not separate their own beliefs to those that they express in their work.' He is very expressive with colour, he mentioned on a concept board of his for Damien Hirsts book design, that white is used within design a lot because there is a pretence to be tasteful. However as much as I can see his, point, it very hard to appear tasteful and not use white, it so commonly used and does appear fresh to the untrained eye.



He also is extremely experimental with his use of type. Which seems to express 'Visual Energy' http://www.fontshop.com/features/fontmag/002/02_barnbrook/. I would like to look further in to how he develops such fonts, and where he gains such influences.

Saatchi Gallery

The Saatchi Gallery Online Is a great place to find inspirational art. You can find the most contemporary and cutting edge art.

Within the site (www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk) there are also biographies, information on the artist, articles, and other resources.

With the website I found a sub heading 'Which reality?' which held some quite nice pieces of work.

Firstly Inka Essenhigh, here first piece shown bellow is called 'Subway' an oil on canvas, 200x180cm. I love the fluid motion of the piece, created by her 'seamless' application of paint. Which seems appropriate considering the movement on a subway. 'Turning everyday banality into surreal case study, Essenhigh gives humorous portrayal of people at their rush hour worst. Drawing stylistic reference from both graphic novels and golden age animation, caricatured city-types gain comically heroic status, rendering a humble slice of America as grand theatrical drama.' http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/inka_essenhigh.htm




Blue wave 2002 oil on canvas 178x 188cm


Supergod 2001, oil and enamel on canvas 183x 188cm

Another artist I was particularly intressted in is David Throrpe. Instead of using the usual oil on canvas, he created these amazing paper collages. They contain the finest of detail. He creates images of 'scenes of urban isolation oozing sex appeal, 70s social architecture promising budget exotica.'


Forever 1998 Paper collage 136 x 154 cm


Kings of the night 1998, paper collage 149x 168cm


We never sleep 1998 Paper collage 90 x 176 cm

'Sleepwalkers' by Sabrina Bonggiovanni

A web museum of Bonggiovanni's photography work can be found on http://www.sabrinabongiovanni.com/.

I really liked this series of sleepwalkers due to the playful quality. It shows how themes can be greatly experimented with within photography. A simple idea but it works well and is rather amusing. The photography basis itself still on the human figure but in a different light. There is a twist being made on the simple figure portrait.

www.blanka.co.uk

A museum on a website

This site is worth a look, it is a 'new searchable archive for seminal art, poster graphics and photography prints.' CR March 2006(It can give you a few inspirational ideas, and you can purchase the posters you like). It has been set up by Neue a London design Studio, and shows work from top designers and companies. The work has a quality and freshness about it especially the monochrome work seen bellow, perhaps due to the semi self-promotional persona it displays.

Work they currently have on file is as follows...

The monochrome exhibition '28 WORDS, 28 DESIGNERS, 28 POSTERS, 28 LOCATIONS. 1 EXHIBITION IN 1 COLOUR'

Here are some of the prints I liked..



7 PROVOKE - DAMIEN POULAIN [ A1 840MM x 594MM ]


19 ART - SEA [ A1 840MM x 594MM ]


25 DEVELOP - ALBERT FOLCH [ A1 840MM x 594MM ]


26 FUNCTION - NORTH [ A1 840MM x 594MM ]


20 COMMUNICATE - NB STUDIO [ A1 840MM x 594MM ] - I really like this one, I think maybe because it stands out from the rest. It appears traditional rather than contemporary. And the Monochrome really expresses the beauty of the bird.

Here's some photography work by created by Martyn Rose also found on the site which I also like...

. 'A SERIES OF IMAGES FOCUSING ON SPORT IN THE COMMUNITY COMMISSIONED BY ADIDAS FOR AN ADVERTISING PRINT CAMPAIGN.' There is a suggestion of Adidas always being present throughout all sports everywhere by the use of brightly coloured strips filtering through the game environment. They lead you to play in the empty court/pool/pitch etc. The sporting environments are photographed with a raw edge, a suggestion that sport is for everyone, Adidas is for everyone.

A musuem of guitars -London Guitar Town

When in London last week I noticed these '10 foot fibre glass free standing guitars' all decorated by leading UK artists.

They have been created by 'Gibson Guitar town London, ' a unique charity inspired campaign bringing together the power of music with art to raise money for three chosen charities; The Princes Trust, Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and Teenage Cancer Trust.' Each guitar is signed by a different artist associated with the design. Artists included 'Paul Weller, Slash, Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart, Noel Gallagher, Mark Knopfler, Roxy Music, New Order, Bruce Dickinson, Brian May, Gary Moore, Gorillaz, Dirty Pretty Things, The Lost Prophets, James Dean Bradfield, Ocean Colour Scene, Graham Coxon, The Kooks, The Magic Numbers, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul Rodgers, Suggs, KT Tunstall, Razorlight, Hard-Fi, Corinne Bailey Rae, Depeche Mode, James Morrision, Motorhead, Sir Cliff Richard and James Blunt.'

Although I have seen similar things done before, I feel this campaign has been great and does get noticed, it goes beyond any poster or leaflet. It also shows great enthusiasm for the cause.

Please find above a selection of the guitars. My favourite being the guitar featuring the baby, I feel the shape of the baby fits nicely within the shape of the guitar. There is also a very distinctive illustrative style. Created by Tommy Penton and titled Mum played by Joni Mitchell while Pregnant. The guitar is signed by Keane.

Here is a link - www.londonguitartown.com.

Tate Liverpool

Last week I visited Tate Liverpool, situated on the Albert dock. A good range of inspirational art was held, from sculpture to photographs claiming Liverpool is the ‘Centre of the Universe,’ a bold and proud statement that I did admire.

Ron Mueck; a rediscovery for myself, exhibited a piece entitled ‘Ghost’ 1998, a tall dangling limbed figure of a girl with a rather gaunt expression on her face. She seems to look down at the viewers, unaware of what’s going on, and in her own little world. She is just a child yet this is contrasted with the scale of the figure. This was all done to 'emphasise a sense of adolescent anxiety.'

I have seen other impressive works by Mueck such as ‘Dead Dad,’ which has always been a favourite of mine, showing the limitations of man, and the iconic fatherly figure, as well as ‘Angel,’ which holds rather optimistic connotations. Mueck works with Fiberglass, silicon, polyurethane foam, acrylic fiber and fabric to create unbelievably realistic sculptures. Due to the ‘visceral realism’ (arts.guardian.co.uk/.../ story/0,,1840033,00.html) and the overwhelming scale the art is agreeably ‘slightly eerie’. (http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=26294&searchid=29151)

He seems to concentrate on one humanistic emotion and express it through the formation of the body.





However the ability to produce life like human figures instead of real humans to project his artist thoughts, can allow Mueck to make small changes, (this may be in terms of scale or unusual proportions).

The front cover of his book, seen in the photograph bellow, I feel depicts the essence of his process of work rather than conceptual ideas, (engineering humans) which within the world of pregnancy and artificial growth is hot topic in today’s society. (This image suggested to me… could such works provoke powerful graphic messages when accompanied by the correct copy.)



Another artists who was also exhibiting was Ellen Gallagher with her series named watery ecstasy. The exhibition was feature in one room on the ground floor; therefore the room contained the atmosphere of the work. I liked the lightness of the work, however the work was not simplistic like so much work these days. Therefore a balance was maintained. Her work also uses subtle layering. A nice collection.