SISTERS 2 EXHIBITION
Exhibition Design & Curation by Marcus Cole & Isabel Ogden
Sisters 2 was an exhibition designed, curated and delivered by Marcus Cole and Isabel Ogden, recent graduates from the Royal College of Art, for two artists Caroline Cole and Sophie Arup. The exhibition was showcased in The Herrick Gallery, London and was the second exhibition presenting the work of the two sisters side by side. It was commissioned and funded personally by the artists after the success of their first show at Cole Gallery.
Marcus & Isabel delivered a series of easily transportable and iterative plinths that responded to rigorous methodology behind the sister’s artwork. Their highly individual but remarkably complementary pieces are founded on geometry and mathematical patterns, enhanced by a rich use of colour and an extraordinary attention to detail - these characteristics were mirrored within the design and layout of the exhibition. In addition, a pair of drawings were created by Marcus Cole as a response to the research undertaken into the two artist’s work for the exhibition. Within these, nature of the sisters seemingly symbiotic artistic methodologies were explored ; copies of these prints are available to purchase here.
The pair were also tasked with the graphic design of the catalogue for the exhibition and curated the experience within the gallery itself. The project was successfully completed within budget and included 23 bespoke modular plinths that have since been repurposed as shelving for the client, 400 A3 catalogue risoprints, window vinyl, an invitation and press release series and a photography series of all items exhibited within the gallery. The project ran for 4 months with the exhibition open for 2 weeks in February 2018.
The design of the catalogue and invitation were approached using the same processes applied to the plinths. The artist’s themes of rigor through numbers was carried through the work, with the invitation and press release both respectively being broken into 2 and 3 pages. With the catalogue, it was intedent that it should be displayed in its full format as a stack of paper. However it was important to address how the information could be taken away from the exhibition as well (as it included important information such as the price list for potential buyers.) In this light it was important that the design also accommodated the ability to be folded in a manner that fit easily into bags and coat pockets to be taken away with those that attended the private view.
With this in mind, the catalogue was separated into two A 3 pages, front and back. Each page addressed one of the sisters as well as a front and back page with credits and exhibition dialogue. Through a number of different iterations the layout then allowed the visitor to engage with the art works in numerical order beginning in the basement. The numbering intentionally began in the basement to help bring visitors down through the lower floor and try to help ensure footfall reached every work displayed. Each of the items displayed in the show was meticulously drawn in CAD as elevations that formed black and white icons to help visitors locate item to price.
CERAMIC PHOTOGRAPH SERIES
Photograph by Marcus Cole.
Series of photographs taken of every ceramic pot displayed in the exhibition was catalogued on a gridded backdrop.
The plinths were design from 4 cuts of coloured MDF. The top and bottom were simple squares of the same dimension with two vertical pieces supporting it diagonally across the square. The edges on this vertical element were mitred twice to ensure a clean detail finish where it met the corners (see below). The pieces were then slotted together with wooden dowels and glued into place with a wood glue. The plinths were then lined with a thin layer of linoleum in a complimentary midnight blue which was placed wherever a ceramic piece was intended. This was to ensure the safety of the object displayed through the greater surface tactility of linoleum to MDF. The finished module could then be stacked on top of one another to create height and display some of the ceramic pieces at eye level while also allowing a smaller stack to display work at different levels. Furthermore, once turned on its side, the plinth acted as a trough through which the catalogue stack could be displayed.
