MODEM ACCESSORIES Fall Winter 2012

EDITO February 2012 This season for the cover we have given “carte blanche” to Scott King, Art Director and British Artist. Scott King’s work adopts an idiosyncratic approach that simultaneously embraces the worlds of art, advertising, graphic design, semiotics, and popular culture. Using the languages of commerce, visual communication, and bureaucracy (charts, statistics, etc.), his works, always imbued with a deadpan humour, aim at a complex of psychological, sociological, and political content. King’s work also has its roots in the seamier side of British culture. He talks of his interest in “the sad end of British pop music… low-rent mucky rock”. His work draws on everything from the 1970s pub-rock scene to British Rail, Dexys Midnight Runners, and the devastation caused by IRA bombs. Scott King trained as a graphic designer. He worked as Art Director of “i-D” and Creative Director of “Sleazenation” magazines, for which he was awarded “Best Cover” and “Best Designed Feature of the Year” prizes. King occasionally produces work under the banner “CRASH!” with writer and historian Matt Worley. King’s work has been exhibited widely in London, New York, and European galleries including the ICA, KW Berlin, Portikus, White Columns, Kunstverein Munich, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. L’oeuvre de Scott King témoigne d’une approche complexe, située à la frontière de l’art, du design, de la publicité, de la sémiotique et de la culture populaire. S’appropriant les langages du commerce, de la communication visuelle, voire de la bureaucratie (tableurs, statistiques), sa pratique, toujours empreinte d’ironie, contient une indéniable charge psychologique, sociologique et politique. Si elle prend ses sources dans les aspects les plus dévalués de la culture vernaculaire britannique, sa pratique s’intéresse aussi bien à « la triste fin de la musique pop anglaise » qu’à la culture du pub et au British Rail, au groupe Dexys Midnight Runners qu’aux attentats de l’IRA. En tant que directeur artistique pour i-D et Sleazenation, magazines pionniers du style british au début des années 1990, Scott King a également mis au point une forme d’infiltration de la communication visuelle lui permettant de détourner la culture visuelle des mass medias. Scott King a récemment exposé à l’ICA (Londres), au KW Berlin, à White Columns et au MoMA (NYC). Thanks to our partners and we wish you a great fall/winter season ... text @ Clément Dirié