The most striking moments of the show are often those of clash or contrast and the exhibition reinforces the ability of graphic design to discern the sound from the noise of contemporary life. One of the three billboards used to protest the lack of action following the Grenfell Tower fire (in reference to Martin McDonagh’s Oscar-winning film) is displayed - just over a month after it was paraded around London. Hope to Nope is also phenomenally up-to-date. Hillary Clinton campaign logos sit alongside the Brixton Pound, a south London micro-currency political posters by the Syrian art collective Alshaab Alsori Aref Tarekh (The Syrian People Know Their Way) are side-by-side with Milton Glaser. That said, the objects included are virtually always interesting and the scope of the curators’ vision is impressive. Organized vaguely into sections of “Power,” “Protest,” and “Personality,” there is little to discern the three or to run a narrative through the show - more a feed than a thread, let’s say. Perhaps in an effort to reflect the complicated nature of discerning truth, or at least a coherent narrative, from the myriad streams of events we expose ourselves to on a daily basis, the exhibition is chaotic and cluttered. Hope to Nope was curated by Margaret Cubbage and GraphicDesign& who separated the space into three sections organized by furniture loosely resembling the apparatus of antisocial urbanism - blockades, bollards, pillars - and is packed from floor to ceiling with objects ranging from pussy protest posters to Pepe the Frog. Yet finally turning the corner into the exhibition it’s clear the basement has a lot to say. Even when Shephard Fairey’s ubiquitous “Hope” poster does appear at the bottom of the staircase, it’s visually interrupted by a bold box informing visitors: “ The Design Museum does not necessarily endorse any of the views expressed in this exhibition, some of which may cause offence.” I’m sure many exhibitions include these kinds of disclaimers, but none of them have clamoured quite so loudly.Ĭourtesy London Design Museum © Benjamin Westoby. Buried in a basement corner of its cavernous home in the repurposed Commonwealth Institute, Hope to Nope, a new exhibition exploring graphics and politics over the last ten years is a little difficult to find. They say you shouldn’t discuss politics at the dinner table but at London’s Design Museum it feels as though it’s been downright swept under the rug.
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