Fool Me Twice
by EUGENIA LIM
  • WHO

    Experimental Jetset (NL), Urs Lehni [Rollo Press] (CH), Kueng Caputo (CH),
    Nicola Stäubli (CH), Barbara Visser (NL); curated by Brad Haylock

  • WHERE

    Light Projects, 176 High St Northcote

    WEBSITE
  • WHEN

    Opening Fri Oct 14, 6-8pm. Exhibition runs until Oct 30, Sat-Sun 12-5pm.

published on 12th October, 2011

Artist/designer Brad Haylock has curated an art show about modernism in a post post-modernist time. Modernism. Post-modernism. Everyone knows the difference, right? The first is as easy as an Eames (chair), while the second is more confusing and existential, like a broken beanbag belonging to Jacques Derrida. Modernism means order, resolution and classic design, while post-modernism means my aching head. Because, Brainiac, it isn’t that simple, especially in this show (in which there actually IS an Eames chair that has been post post-modernised by Nicola Stäubli).

When poet Ezra Pound said “make it new!” he was talking about a revolution in art, design and culture, NOT maxing out his modernist Amex on new stuff. Like his own work, Brad’s Fool Me Twice is a lovechild born out of the art and design wedlock, connecting modernist or ‘utopian’ design with our consumer present. A banner by Dutch designers Experimental Jetset (who are such supermenschs of typography that they even did the posters for Gary Huswit’s Helvetica-porn) provides a death-metal backdrop.

IMAGES: Experimental Jetset, ‘Modernism Backdrop’ from Black Metal Machine, 1998 / Nicola Stäubli, Rearranged, 2010 (photos by Michael Sieber)

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