Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia & Friends

Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia and Friends was an exhibition at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, that brought to light the pioneering vision of artist Li Yuan-chia, and the LYC Museum & Art Gallery which he founded and ran between 1972 and 1983 in the Cumbrian village of Banks. Our exhibition design sought to capture the DIY energy of the LYC Museum & Gallery, with ‘room numbers’ (a nod to signage found in the LYC) and object labels printed onto raw recycled board, and text panels printed onto thick paper nailed to the walls. A restrained colour palette honours Li’s prominent use of black and red, underscored by a warm sunshine yellow taken from paper stocks found in the archives, lending a welcoming, friendly tone. The title typography further honours Li Yuan-chia’s publishing work and the ever-present typewriter texts and concrete poetry found throughout his archive. Idiosyncrasies nod to astrology and the cosmic point – the conceptual core to Li’s practice. A group show of striking breadth and variety spanning a multitude of different spaces across the Kettle’s Yard site and beyond, the interpretation presented a number of logistical design challenges. Our solution was a combination of both caption labels and object numbers, accompanied by printed gallery guides, to support and bring together the works and objects in a clear and cohesive yet understated way. Pictured here are the two gallery guides, conceived in tribute to the LYC Press, Li Yuan-chia’s prolific self-publishing practice through which Li wrote, designed and printed countless lo-fi exhibition catalogues, artists’ books, poetry, yearbooks and a magazine called ‘LYC Arts’. In collaboration with Hannah Montague. Curated by Hammad Nasar, Sarah Victoria Turner and Amy Tobin