CONTINUED
Hidden in Plain View
HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS FOR NORTHERN EUROPEANS
Top Graphic Designers from across northern Europe will produce specially commissioned postcards exploring their idea of home in a UK exhibition set to take place in the North East later this year. Each postcard will hold a hidden message encouraging the audience to decipher the artists’ concept of home in relation to landscape, people and culture.
Featuring high profile graphic designers such as Scott King, former creative director of Sleazenation magazine and former art director of i-D as well innovative new talent, Hidden in Plain View asks the question: Is there a shared notion of home across the Northern European region, or is it more location specific?
Hidden in Plain View also examines the Scandinavian tradition of concealing codes within postcards; the audience will be asked to crack these codes using three hidden clues.
Beth Rowson and Danielle Pender from curatorial body All the Tea in China, are the brains behind Hidden in Plain View, which is set to take place in Newcastle upon Tyne this October.
Beth said: “The idea behind Hidden in Plain View comes from the ancient traditions and cultures of Northern Europe. In the early 19th century it was very expensive to send traditional letters across Scandinavia so people used to send postcards. However to avoid their content being deciphered people developed a range of codes.”
Danielle explains: “We still continue to use coded messages in more modern day communication such as texts. Part of Hidden in Plain View is showing how different traditions, places and eras do have such connections tying them together. The theme of home transcends culture, age and gender in this way. Everyone has an impression of what feels like home, even if it is not in the traditional sense. The exhibition aims to convey how this very personal impression is part of a more widely shared experience. Using the focal point of Northern Europe where the tradition of hidden messages was born, we aim to draw this realisation to the surface, where perhaps it was always hidden in plain view.”
Hidden in Plain View is part of this year’s Design Event, the North East’s annual design festival, taking place from 9-26 October 2008. Now in its fourth year, Design Event 08 includes exhibitions covering graphics, illustration, fashion, architecture and product design at a host of venues across the region. It has grown in reputation and size since 2005 to attract big names, featuring Vaughan Oliver and Michael C Place as exhibitors in 2007.
