May 02

Comics Unmasked at the British Library: aka Kapow!

kapow

Every now and again some cool commission work will come your way, and as it happens one came my way, and has been one of my favorites.  The British Library have produced an exhibition exploring comics as a political medium,  Comics Unmasked:  Art and Anarchy in the UK, and asked yours truly to design some jewellery pieces to  go with it.

Zap Necklace Brooch Earring

Hhhmmm I though, I love comics, the dotty printing,the Lichtenstein pop art interpretation of them, the crazy colour, what to do, what to do.  I guess the first considerations when making some specialized pieces is to try and get the essence of the subject matter distilled into one or two ideas and then apply them across a few different mediums.  For me, comics are a lot about action, you know, baddies getting a punch in the nose, mostly violent interaction, come to think of it, but without anyone actually getting hur.  So I thought the movement from comics should be on the list, what are they doing to each other, lots of zapping and kapowing I thought.  Aesthetically, the colour and pattern are obviously a big element too, but instead of just transposing the traditional dots and crumpled paper look I’d go for something updated to give it a bit of a new spin.  Kind of put the artysmarty filter over it.

kapow 2

And then, what do you do when you love something?  Set it free.  In this case lovingly give it to the British Library as their own (which it is, all accounts have been finalised!) and package it so.  Tying it all together with specialized notes and logos on the boxes and cards gives the customer a lasting warm glow after attending the exhibition.  Noice.

medium box insert 770 x 560

One for the boxes…..

large box inside BL

a bit more info for the brooch cards

Heading to London anytime soon?  Exhibition begins today, 2nd May and runs till the 19th August 2014

The British Library

blog footer