Some Things Better Change
HBKsaar Hochschule für Bilende Kunst, Saarbrücken, DE
November 6 – December 12, 2010
Statement (by Paulien Barbas, exhibition design): «Some Things Better Change was a solo exhibition by graphic design studio Our Polite Society at HBKsaar Gallery in Saarbrücken, Germany. In collaboration we made a work emphasizing the problem of presenting graphic design work in the context of a gallery. In such a setting the work loses its functionality and to a certain extent represents itself: when the work is hung on the wall in order to be ‘viewed’ and not to be ‘used’ it turns into a representation of an idea rather than a functional object. Trying to not fall into this trap the exhibition focused on the aspect of (re-)presentation of the work in general. In collaboration we showed a series of screen printed sheets (70 × 100 cm) that functioned as backgrounds in a series of photographs made as work documentation for the studio’s website. On an opposite wall this series of documentation photographs was shown as C-prints in 1:1 scale depending on the object shown on the photograph – the representation of a poster would be bigger in size than the representation of a business card. A third part of the exhibition was a (conventional) display of original works on walls and tables. In the interaction of these 3 elements (screen prints, C-prints, originals) the exhibition tried to activate the above mentioned problem within the presentation itself.»
