10 Oct. 2012
OMMU is pleased to present “Postcards and Rare Multiples”, an exhibition of just what the words say, postcards and rare multiples, designed and produced for and by Eric Wrenn OFFICE. This is a practice that signals an impressive implementation of graphic design as an exercise in providing space for the wild circulation of images and information to slow down and find new configurations; configurations that let the quality of its content—be it clever, elegant or even stupid—communicate like the clouds of smoke from Magritte’s pipe. A personal business card as an American flag is a good example, where the stars and stripes are put to use as an image that expresses one’s personal contact without the need of an email. An artist book for Robin Cameron that is orchestrated as a three-act play is another, adding curtains and a spotlight to amplify the theatricality of Cameron’s practice that self-consciously performs its very artistic subjectivity. Even the layouts produced for SUP Magazine are designed in such a manner that activates its pages with a restless compositional experimentation, coupling text and image to the cadence of a conversation, and ultimately managing one of the most successful defibrillations of print music journalism in this weird new age of blogs, pdfs and microblogs. With works produced specifically for OMMU, “Postcards and Rare Multiples” is a chance to see this noteworthy practice respond and reconfigue itself specifically for the exhibition format. Noteworthy among these is the Eric Wrenn OFFICE design portfolio—photographed by frequent collaborator Milan Zrnic and seen online at ericwrennoffice.com—output in the format of a tourist shop postcard rack. Also included is perhaps the most concise expression of Eric Wrenn OFFICE’s design approach. Perhaps it is a koan-style philosophy like this: the designer must reach the point where the design is also not the design, that is to say, the designer himself. Such words are just to clarify—by way of new age nonsense—the fact that, while this exhibition is on view, OMMU will function as a branch of Eric Wrenn OFFICE.
Eric Wrenn OFFICE at OMMU
Postcards and Rare Multiples
12-27 October, 2012