Inspiration
February 15, 2011
I am 26 and am currently studying for my Masters degree in Printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London. My print for the Folio exhibition doesn't specifically deal with Shakespeare, but more broadly with language on the periphery of theatre, hype language, fragments of praise and graphical showbiz stars. I wanted to take these from specific posters to make a sort of super-hype poster for itself or for the print set, or for whatever context it finds itself in. All of it derives from photographs of actual theatre posters, I haven't drawn or written the elements myself. You can still get a sense of it from the print, the letters look cut out rather than typed.
The inspiration for my print can be traced back pretty far. Six years ago I was studying at Central St. Martins, in Soho. Our favourite pub, the Angel, just by St. Giles in the Fields church, was and still is hung with autographed theatre posters from West End productions. Most are from the 80s, and I'm sure a new one hasn't been added in the last fifteen years. From the first I was taken by them, and years later, last summer, I was reminded of them on the bus, sitting top front winding down Shaftsbury Avenue and looking out at the theatres.
I had never seen the stars, the fonts and colours, the lights and images quite the same way as I did then. It all hit me fast and hard and obviously. The language of the quotes and the language of the graphics are so base and unashamed and I was drawn into it. I remembered the Angel and those older posters and how all the hype had been excised from the productions, or were just less present. I was struck by the transience of a 'PERFECT' musical, of 'FRESH' and of the ubiquitous '★★★★★'.
by Henrik Potter
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