28 November 2011
Turner Prize nominee to talk at Cooper Gallery
Photo opportunity: 5.30pm on Thursday, 1st December. Turner Prize nominee Martin Boyce will discuss the work and influence of the Design Research Unit.
Turner Prize 2011 nominee Martin Boyce will later this week visit Dundee to discuss his own practice and an exhibition of pioneering industrial design work currently taking place at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.
The exhibition, 'Design Research Unit: 1942-72' at DJCAD’s Cooper Gallery explores the development of industrial design in the UK. It is based on new research into the eponymous unit, who were responsible for some of the most important design produced in post-war Britain.
The Cooper Gallery is the only venue in Scotland chosen to present this Cubitt Gallery touring exhibition, and Scottish Turner nominee Martin Boyce, whose atmospheric, sculptural art is influenced by the DRU, will talk about the legacy and importance of the group on 1st December.
'This exhibition is significant for many reasons,' said Sophia Hao, Curator of Exhibitions at DJCAD, part of the University of Dundee.
'Alongside this opportunity to discover and celebrate the profound contributions that the Design Research Unit made to post-war design, we are also fortunate to be presenting an artist's talk by Turner Prize nominee Martin Boyce, whose practice draws upon Modernist design history.'
The DRU was one of the first generation of British design consultancies, and brought together expertise in architecture, graphics and industrial design. Formed in London in 1942, the DRU pioneered a model for group practice. By the 1970s it was one of the largest and most established design offices in Europe.
This exhibition is the first to map the history of the group and the currency of their designs. It spans more than four decades of their work, focuses on some of their most significant projects, charts their ambition to bring elegant and functional design to all sections of society, and explores the accelerated demand for corporate design.
It covers three phases of activity - the group’s early origins and founder members, initial work in exhibition design and the Unit’s role in devising some of the first and most comprehensive corporate design schemes commissioned for British industry.
Highlights include:
- Documentation of an initiative to commission the sculptor Naum Gabo to design the body and interior of a car for Bradford-based company, Jowett (1943).
- Photographs relating to exhibitions for the wartime Ministry of Information, the Council of Industrial Design’s Britain Can Make It (1946) and their major contribution to the Festival of Britain (1951).
- There will be substantial material relating to experimental work for the Watney Mann brewery that resulted in a total scheme to ‘update’ the traditional English public houses (from beer bottles to interior furnishings).
- Iconic corporate identities including work for British Rail (1965), the London Transport network, photographic company Ilford and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).
- Architectural content featuring the Piano and Rogers extension for the company’s Aybrook Street offices, that Richard and Su Rogers began working on whilst they were associates of the Design Research Unit (1967 - 71).
The Design Research Unit became part of the architectural practice, Scott Brownrigg in 2004 and the exhibition has been made possible by their support.
The exhibition is based on original research to be published within a new book designed by A Practice For Everyday Life (APFEL) and published by Koenig Books later this year.
'Design Research Unit: 1942 - 72' takes place at the Cooper Gallery until 16th December, and the Artist's Talk by Martin Boyce takes place at 5.30pm on 1st December.
Notes to editors:
This exhibition at Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, part of University of Dundee, is the only presentation of this exhibition in Scotland.
The opening hours for the exhibition are: Monday-Friday, 9.30am-5pm, Saturday 10.30am-4.30pm.
For further information and images please contact Laura Simpson l.z.simpson@dundee.ac.uk
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