2011

This three-screen projection by Dexter Sinister was co-commissioned and first exhibited by Artists Space, New York. It combines the story of three high-profile art institutional graphic identities—the Centre Pompidou, MoMA, and the Tate—with a hi-speed reverse-chronological history of graphic design’s approximate 100-year history told mostly through animated black-and-white logos. The story jumps from screen to screen according to the narrative thread, with occasional interludes on all three. 

The voiceover script was collaged almost entirely from others’ writing in design history books, branding manuals, archive reports, and web blogs. The only brand new text is the triangular concrete poem above, which replaced Artists Space’s regular solid triangle identity for the run of the show. The triangle attempts to distill the idea that there is usually a difference between the true nature of institutions (on the inside) and how they present themselves (to the outside)—and conversely wonders what an “unmediated” identity would look like. The script was also published as an accompanying booklet, with extended reference material at the back.

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