L. Kent Wolgamott: Local graphic designers on view at Gallery 9
Graphic design surrounds us, appearing in everything from this newspaper to billboards, posters, magazines, T-shirts, television and the Internet. That ubiquitousness often causes the work to be overlooked in the visual bombardment of everyday life.
“PUSH: An Occurrence of Graphic Design that Supports and/or Opposes Social Causes,” an exhibition by five local graphic designers on view through Jan. 29 at Gallery 9, pulls graphic design out of its usual locations and puts it in an art gallery, arguing by its presence that the work rises to the level of art while conveying the messages contained in text.
That case is made explicitly in a series of six pieces by Jontue Hollingsworth. “We Design...” alternates the words “Minds,” “the World” and “You,” claiming a power for design that sounds good when written, but overstates the power of any single piece of work to influence any behavior, be it buying a can of soup or raising political/social activism, which is the point of the show.
If the idea is that design, taken collectively, has an all-pervasive influence, Hollingsworth gets it partly right. There’s no question graphic design is part of the way in which we all see the world.
But there are too many messages and images coming from too many sources for there to be any way that design in-and-of-itself can do more than reinforce or question existing beliefs and opinions. Change and control of behavior and thoughts are out of the question for graphic design — or any other media.
That said, the designers in the exhibition use their skills effectively to make some points through innovative, eye-catching work.
The most directly political work in the show comes from Justin Kemerling, who takes on what he calls the “corporate serpent” in a series of small pieces, and who has a wall work about war and a poster series decrying the sale of alcohol at Whiteclay.
“Fox News is Bloodthirsty Ferocity and we are those unable to dialogue” reads the text on “Ferocity,” one of Kemerling’s anti-corporate pieces. The primary imagery — a headless bird layered over a cage. A dog in front of a fence sets the tone for “Juggernaut,” the text of which reads “Wal-Mart is the rampaging juggernaut and we are the unsuspecting jogger.”
Kemerling’s wall piece “Paste Up for Peace” is just that — a series of black-and-white posters pasted to the wall. Reminiscent of the ’60s and ’70s, Kemerling’s piece is artfully arranged, but still functions as political provocation.
A step more subtle are the three “campaigns” displayed by Clint! Runge, a co-owner of Archrival. One series of small posters creates a series of children’s paper games, such as tic-tac-toe, to deliver a message from the World Wildlife Fund. “Environmental Word Find,” for example, asks the player to find the letters that spell the names of the animals that ring the poster, while “Environmental Hang Game” is a clever take on the old hangman game.
In his “Advice Campaign” Runge uses tiny heads of celebrities and those with whom they have slept, married and divorced placed inside lines of text that describe their dysfunctional love lives to drive home the unifying final point of each piece: “Still Want to Get Relationship Advice From the Entertainment Industry?” The celebrities — R. Kelly, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Tommy Lee — were well chosen and the posters are very effective in making their point.
Runge’s “Who Pays Campaign” is also aimed at the music industry, using outlines of the female torso with depictions of compact discs to protest the treatment of women in popular music.
Jason Hardy’s work also deals with gender, only his is aimed at the male. “Masculine Mind,” a series of three posters, finds a headless man in a suit covered with concentric circles over which the words “Empathy,” “Ethicality” and “Sincerity” are printed. Hardy’s point, made in his text, is that men need to transform themselves into healthier, nonviolent people. He makes the same point using 16 mirrors onto which text and images have been ink-jet printed, an impressive technical feat that draws in the viewer to be exposed to the message.
The least political work in the exhibition is a series of posters by Richard Eckersley, a designer who works for the University of Nebraska Press. Appropriately enough, Eckersley’s pieces are large book covers that are done with skill and wit.
For a book called “Italian Fascism: Its Origins & Development,” Eckersley sets the Italian “boot” goose-stepping, doubling the outline of the country so it looks as if it is marching. For a book titled “Breton: The Lost Steps,” Eckersley embraces surrealism, the movement for which Andre Breton was the most visible spokesman, by having an eye stare out at the viewer from the bottom of a shoe.
Given the way we deal with information, “PUSH” isn’t likely to change any minds. But it will reinforce the beliefs of many who view it and it certainly shows some of the graphic design talent that exists in Lincoln.
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
“PUSH: An Occurrence of Graphic Design that Supports and/or Opposes Social Causes,” an exhibition by five local graphic designers on view through Jan. 29 at Gallery 9, pulls graphic design out of its usual locations and puts it in an art gallery, arguing by its presence that the work rises to the level of art while conveying the messages contained in text.
That case is made explicitly in a series of six pieces by Jontue Hollingsworth. “We Design...” alternates the words “Minds,” “the World” and “You,” claiming a power for design that sounds good when written, but overstates the power of any single piece of work to influence any behavior, be it buying a can of soup or raising political/social activism, which is the point of the show.
If the idea is that design, taken collectively, has an all-pervasive influence, Hollingsworth gets it partly right. There’s no question graphic design is part of the way in which we all see the world.
But there are too many messages and images coming from too many sources for there to be any way that design in-and-of-itself can do more than reinforce or question existing beliefs and opinions. Change and control of behavior and thoughts are out of the question for graphic design — or any other media.
That said, the designers in the exhibition use their skills effectively to make some points through innovative, eye-catching work.
The most directly political work in the show comes from Justin Kemerling, who takes on what he calls the “corporate serpent” in a series of small pieces, and who has a wall work about war and a poster series decrying the sale of alcohol at Whiteclay.
“Fox News is Bloodthirsty Ferocity and we are those unable to dialogue” reads the text on “Ferocity,” one of Kemerling’s anti-corporate pieces. The primary imagery — a headless bird layered over a cage. A dog in front of a fence sets the tone for “Juggernaut,” the text of which reads “Wal-Mart is the rampaging juggernaut and we are the unsuspecting jogger.”
Kemerling’s wall piece “Paste Up for Peace” is just that — a series of black-and-white posters pasted to the wall. Reminiscent of the ’60s and ’70s, Kemerling’s piece is artfully arranged, but still functions as political provocation.
A step more subtle are the three “campaigns” displayed by Clint! Runge, a co-owner of Archrival. One series of small posters creates a series of children’s paper games, such as tic-tac-toe, to deliver a message from the World Wildlife Fund. “Environmental Word Find,” for example, asks the player to find the letters that spell the names of the animals that ring the poster, while “Environmental Hang Game” is a clever take on the old hangman game.
In his “Advice Campaign” Runge uses tiny heads of celebrities and those with whom they have slept, married and divorced placed inside lines of text that describe their dysfunctional love lives to drive home the unifying final point of each piece: “Still Want to Get Relationship Advice From the Entertainment Industry?” The celebrities — R. Kelly, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Tommy Lee — were well chosen and the posters are very effective in making their point.
Runge’s “Who Pays Campaign” is also aimed at the music industry, using outlines of the female torso with depictions of compact discs to protest the treatment of women in popular music.
Jason Hardy’s work also deals with gender, only his is aimed at the male. “Masculine Mind,” a series of three posters, finds a headless man in a suit covered with concentric circles over which the words “Empathy,” “Ethicality” and “Sincerity” are printed. Hardy’s point, made in his text, is that men need to transform themselves into healthier, nonviolent people. He makes the same point using 16 mirrors onto which text and images have been ink-jet printed, an impressive technical feat that draws in the viewer to be exposed to the message.
The least political work in the exhibition is a series of posters by Richard Eckersley, a designer who works for the University of Nebraska Press. Appropriately enough, Eckersley’s pieces are large book covers that are done with skill and wit.
For a book called “Italian Fascism: Its Origins & Development,” Eckersley sets the Italian “boot” goose-stepping, doubling the outline of the country so it looks as if it is marching. For a book titled “Breton: The Lost Steps,” Eckersley embraces surrealism, the movement for which Andre Breton was the most visible spokesman, by having an eye stare out at the viewer from the bottom of a shoe.
Given the way we deal with information, “PUSH” isn’t likely to change any minds. But it will reinforce the beliefs of many who view it and it certainly shows some of the graphic design talent that exists in Lincoln.
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
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