Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics, held at the Barbican in 2022, is the first major UK survey of the artist’s work and spans over 60 years of her transgressive and interdisciplinary practice.
The exhibition design, developed in collaboration with vPPR Architects, employs walls of semi-translucent fabric, infused with gradients of orangey red that both cloud and reveal views through the exhibition. These fabric interventions reference the performative aspects of Schneemann's practice, as the visitor weaves within the spaces and experiences the work with an intimate proximity. Texts are directly screenprinted to the walls to underline the sense of tactility, and the works are presented on a background of muted tones that transition between sections.
The combination of typefaces reflect the facets and nuance of Schneemann's work. The bold extended entrance title has an unequivocal presence, while the monospace used for section titling is more narrative, set in unique typographic 'choreography' in response to Schneemann's own detailed plans and notes for her performance works.
We were commissioned to design the large-scale monograph Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics, co-published by Barbican and Yale University Press, to accompany the exhibition of the same name. Our design is inspired by the ephemera that surrounds Schneemann's work, in particular the eclectic exhibition flyers of 1960/70s New York. The mix of paper tints throughout the publication reference the artist's own books, which often employed unusual use of bold colours and overprinted images. The cover features a vibrant gradient over Schneemann’s seminal work Up to and Including Her Limits and the case is flush-cut, revealing the tactile book board underneath.
