AQUATOPIA
Tate/Nottingham Contemporary

This publication accompanied the exhibition of the same name at Nottingham Contemporary and Tate St Ives. Working closely with Alex Farquarson (Director, Nottingham Contemporary) and Martin Clarke (Artistic Director, Tate St Ives) it was felt that the publication should be designed to function more as a ‘reader’ or compendium of textual and visual sources than a conventional exhibition catalogue. As such it includes a huge range of work from a diverse selection of contemporary and classic artists and writers.

First edition published by Tate, London, UK, 2013. Edited, and with a foreword/introduction by Martin Clarke and Alex Farquarson. Texts: Philip Hoare and Marina Warner; additional texts: various; 198 x 129 mm. 240pp; 4-colour images throughout; paperback, flapped cover

From the press release: ‘It occupies 72 per cent of the surface of our planet, yet the depths of our oceans are less known to us than the Solar System. The publication is a cross-disciplinary exploration of the aquatic imaginary, encompassing literature, maritime and cultural history, psychoanalysis, post-colonial and feminist theory, and including work from a diverse selection of artists and writers, both contemporary and classic masters.

UNHOLY LIBEL
Jake & Dinos Chapman

For their first major U.S. exhibition (‘Six Feet Under’ Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA, September 13-October 11, 1997) Jake and Dinos Chapman asked SecMoCo to design the accompanying publication. More than a catalogue, it was seen as a stand alone edition developing the themes and concerns of the work, as such the design took a blasphemous turn, adopting the form of the helpful reading material you could once find in the drawer of any hotel room bedside cabinet.

First published by Gagosian Gallery, US, 1997; edited, and with a text by Jake and Dinos Chapman; 215x164mm; 152pp; thread sewn; 48 color illustrations; gilt edges; brown faux-leather covers in plastic jacket, gold embossing. Print: Jim Pennington for Lithosphere, London

Context from Amazon:
Best Sellers Rank: #4,107,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Antonio A. Urdiales on December 30, 2005
‘Once again Jake and Dinos Chapman take us on a trip through the absurd. This book has a very thin narrative running through it. If you’re looking for fiction by two of the most vile of Britain’s artworld, you’ve come to the wrong place, LEAVE NOW!

The books is a series of vingettes detailing gruesome monstrosities in the style of J.G. Ballard. I’m sure there was a plot in there somewhere, but the chapters were so short (think two to three a page) and fragmented that I lost it. Mostly it just read like details from an apocalyptic surgical guide. Which isn’t for everybody. But if you enjoy exploding brains and monstrous genitalia, LA TEE DA! The written word was fun if not tiring. But the real beauty of the book is in the plates of the boys sculptures. The sculptural work of the Chapman brothers is grotesque divinity, detailing mutated children from a land in which all normal notions of beauty have been subverted. And the colored plates dispersed throughout the writings were excellent examples of their sculptural works and just truly a joy to look at. The book is also gilt edged with a beautifully embossed cover, it’s also a very tiny book which makes one desire to carry it around as a horrifying talisman of the new age. This book is a VERY rare artbook as well, created by the Gagosian Gallery in New York. An edition of this book costs about $100 to thousands for signed copies. I would highly recommend picking up an edition up if you’re a collector of YBA artworks or the Chapman brothers, I wouldn’t doubt that the price will skyrocket in coming years.’

http://www.amazon.com/Unholy-Libel-Six-Feet-Under/dp/1880154145

TRIPLE BLUFF CANYON
Mike Nelson

Commissioned by the elegantly exacting Suzanne Cotter, this book was published to accompany the exhibition by 2004 Turner Prize nominee Mike Nelson at Modern Art Oxford.

The front cover utilised an Arts Magazine cover from May 1978 depicting a seminal work by Robert Smithson that the artist had recreated in the gallery at MAO. As such, the title and cover information was transferred to the reverse, adopting the typographic style of the gallery ads of that period.

First published, in an edition of 1000 copies, by Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK, 01 January 1999; edited by Suzanne Cotter; texts: Jeremy Millar and Brian Aldiss; 210x170mm; 72pp; 58 images, including 8pp colour plate section, 50 b&w image in uncoated section; paperback with 4-colour cover thread sewn; printed by Art Quarters, UK.

Context, from Andrew Mead at the Architect’s Journal website:
‘Entering a Mike Nelson installation is like stumbling into a minicab office in the early hours of the morning in the wrong part of a town you don’t know – and then things get worse’

PLATFORM
Identity: print

The development of the gallery identity for a contemporary art project space, and accompanying publications. As befitting the name of the space, the stationery, announcement cards and advertising employed the Johnston typeface and made reference to the London Underground signage and tube line colour scheme.

MAKE EVERYTHING NEW
Book Works

This was a collection of texts and artists projects, examining the possibility of a communist informed contemporary art practice

The book: published in an edition of 1,500 copies by Book Works, London, UK and Project Arts Centre, Dublin, UK, 2006; 240 x 170mm; 176pp, thread sewn; 4-colour images throughout; paperback cover

Accompanying 2-colour poster edition, incorporating extract from the text: 710 x 538mm

Context from the Book Works catalogue: ‘Communism is routinely defined as defeated and its conquest the subject of regular celebration. Caught in the disappointment and negative connotations of the past, it has become all but unthinkable. Make Everything New – A Project On Communism seeks to rescue the idea of Communism from this trap. Collaborating with artists, writers and collectives, this project has commissioned and collected counter-narratives, abstract and unrealistic ideas, engaged political commentary and satirical work, that presents neither an historical or comprehensive overview nor a requiem for the past. It is a collection of partial and subjective accounts of various creative practices, an experimental platform for ideas and an attempt to see in what ways the communist imagination can be materialised as art.’

PERFORMANCE RESEARCH
Journal

From its inception SecMoCo devised the identity, design and layout of the journal Performance Research, for the Centre for Performance Research, Cardiff. Working closely with its editors Richard Gough, Claire MacDonald and Ric Allsopp, from 1995–1999.

For visual and textual information on each issue go to: http://www.performance-research.org/past-issue.php

CLUB TO CATWALK
V&A Museum

One from deep within the vaults; no involvement on the design for this one, rather, that’s my painting behind Scarlett!

Originally commissioned for Blitz magazine in 1985.

Photography: Monica Curtin; styling: John Derry-Bunce; hair: Ross Cannon; make-up: Jalle Bakke; model: Scarlett.

Context:
V&A: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-from-club-to-catwalk-london-fashion-in-the-80s/

Shapers of the 80’s : http://shapersofthe80s.com/tag/va/

For an interview with Scarlett by Charlie Porter see: http://charlieporter.net/stories/7321

3 SERIES: Modern Art Oxford/
Camden Arts Centre/Arnolfini

The then curator at Modern Art Oxford, Suzanne Cotter, kindly invited SecMoCo to devise a series design for the publications to accompany three artists’ commissions jointly organised by Modern Art Oxford; Camden Arts Centre, London; and Arnolfini, Bristol under the collective title of the 3 Series. In this initiative the work of the three artists (Mircea Cantor, Johanna Billing and Kerry Tribe) toured three galleries in the UK over a period of three years.

An understated design was called for, to foreground each artists work and also to allow for maximum flexibility over the course of the three year development of the project. This was achieved formaly rather than stylisticly, with the format and layout of the casebound books remaining constant, the font and colour scheme changing across the series for each publication.

Each book first published, in an edition of 1000 copies, by Modern Art Oxford / Camden Arts Centre / Arnolfini, Bristol, in 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively; 196mm x 262mm; 64pp; images– variable; 4-colour printed paper case cover (no dust jacket), thread sewn.

Book 1: The Need For Uncertainty Mircea Cantor: Edited, and with an introduction by Bruce Haines; book 2: I’m Lost Without Your Rhythm Johanna Billing: Edited, and with an introduction by Bruce Haines; book 3: Dead Star Light Kerry Tribe: Edited, and with an introduction by Nav Haq; texts by Juli Carson, Anne Ellegood, Herbert Martin

LITTLE PRIVATE GOVERNMENTS
Amanda Beech & Matthew Poole

SecMoCo were flattered to be approached by this grouping of cutting-edge contemporary theorists/artists to devise an identity relavent to the ideas informing their exhibition, catalogue and symposium Little Private Governments which examined the relationship of art to organizational systems and power (University Gallery Essex, 01 February 2006).

First published by University of the West of England, 2006; edited, and with a foreword by, Amanda Beech & Matthew Poole; texts by Suhail Malik and Roman Vasseur; 210 x 148 mm; 48 pp; 20 color images; softcover with 4-colour cover.

Accompanying 4-colour poster edition, incorporating design for the catalogue cover: 420 x 297mm.

Context, from the exhibition and symposium publicity:
Little Private Governments brings together emerging and established artists whose work demonstrates a long-term interest in the rhetoric of freedom and democracy. The exhibition includes works by Amanda Beech, Pil & Galia Kollectiv, Jenny Holzer, Martin Kippenberger, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Roman Vasseur. The accompanying catalogue includes commisioned new writing from three authors covering current debates on aesthetics and politics: a collaborative essay by Beech and Poole, and essays by Dr Suhail Malik and Roman Vasseur.

Jointly curated by Matthew Poole and Amanda Beech ‘Little Private Governments’ addresses the place of art within the structures of capitalism, democracy and idealism.

Links:
www.romanvasseur.com

EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES
Exhibition

In 2000 I jointly curated an exhibition investigating the relationship between art and the military.

Fiona Banner
William Burroughs
Pietro Mattioli
Polly Staple
John Timberlake

Platform, Spitalfileds, London 02.02.00 – 25. 06. 00