I chose these images because they represent my interests in work that calls into question conventions of beauty. Of course those conventions are always under scrutiny and the definition is difficult to “fix,” but M/M Paris (Mathias Augustyniak, Michaël Amzalag, mmparis.com); Cyan (Daniela Haufe, Detlef Fiedler, cyan.de); (Richard) Niessen & (Esther) de Vries, niessendevries. nl; Tomato (Steve Baker, Dirk van Dooren, Karl Hyde, Richard Smith, Simon Taylor, John Warwicker, Graham Wood, Jason Kedgley, Michael Horsham, www.tomato.co.uk) and Vier5 (Marco Fiedler, Achim Reichert, vier5.de) deal with conventions as a central component of their practice. The resulting work is not so much a conscious effort to “deliver the goods” per se, but an effort to tackle the bigger issues of how to present their [respective] conception of form in a way that responses to contemporary culture.
Robert Rauschenberg: Booster, 1967. April Greiman: Design Quarterly 133, 1987.
M/M Paris: Daria I Love You (Björk), 2008.
Cyan: Singuhr–Hoergalerie Music Festival, 2008.
Cyan: Singuhr–Hoergalerie Music Festival, 2004.
Cyan: 21st Poster Biennial Warsaw, 2008.
Cyan: 25 Years of Good Friends Music, 2008.
Cyan: “Progressive Posters” for 89, 2009.
Cyan: British Council, Program brochures, 2000–2004.
Cyan: Singuhr-Hoergalerie 1996–1998 catalog, 1999.
Founded in 1992, Cyan’s practice focusses on providing for the
needs of the cultural sector and public institutions.
Niessen & de Vries: Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF), 2007.
Niessen & de Vries: Forum Typographie lecture, 2008.
The letters of the sentence “Donne au train des idées d’avance”
(“Ideas move forward on a train”) are cropped as if it were a
panorama seen through the window of a moving train.
This poster was made for the lecture Niessen & de Vries gave at
the Hochschule für Künsten Bremen about the design school
Ulm.
Tomato: Six Words, 2006.
Tomato: Idea Magazine 337, 2009.
In 2006, Wired Magazine asked 33 writers and 5 designers to
conceive of science fiction stories using a limit of 6-words. The
poster by Tomato displays 5 of those stories.
Idea Magazine 337 featured a 144-page essay on a number of
books Tomato has published including The Floating World,
Process, Tomato and visual works for Underworld.
Vier5: Centre of Contemporary Art in Bretigny, Void2, 2005 .
Vier5: Centre of Contemporary Art in Bretigny, XEvent, 2006.
Vier5: Centre of Contemporary Art in Bretigny, La Monnaie Vivante, 2006.
Vier5 conceived of and continue to design the identity and exhibition materials for the Centre of Contemporary Art in Bretigny.