Keith Haring
Services:
- Exhibition design
- Production
How do you design for an artist whose bold style and vision redefined the role of art and the artist in society?
When commissioned to work on this project, we spent days immersing ourselves in Haring's work and the hive of creativity that was NYC in that decade. We looked at photos by Ricky Powell and Miron Zownir and watched hours of documentaries and newsreels from the era, capturing the cultural zeitgeist.
Keith Haring's work is incredibly iconic and famously bold. We felt it crucial to honour that while also respecting the tone of his work. With the video work Painting Myself Into A Corner, we used the space's architecture to reinforce the work's perspective. Whereas for Haring's immersive 'black light' room, we utilised the effect of neon paint stripes as a backdrop to the neon paintings as a reference to the nightclub aesthetics of NYC's Tony Shafrazi Gallery, where the installation was first presented in 1982.
It was essential to subtly weave elements of New York street style and culture into the exhibition; we needed the gallery to feel like neither a static museum nor Haring's famous boutique - Pop Shop. It needed to incorporate the diversity of expression, performative drawings and Haring's evolution from a young artist to a pop icon and, finally, a political activist. The political spaces were designed as 'open' to encourage visitors to observe these nuances, while other areas were created as more intimate experiences.
Project details
Curation: Darren Pih and Tamar Hemmes
Exhibition Design & Production: InterestingProjects
Supported: Keith Haring Foundation and in partnership with Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR), Brussels, and Museum Folkwang, Essen
Build: Tate Liverpool
Graphic Design: Tate Liverpool
Photography: Theo Christelis
June 2019
