As part of the London Design Festival, you will be able to view Noma Bar's interactive exhibition Cut It Out at Outline Editions gallery. Crane.tv met the Israeli-born, award-winning, graphic designer at his North London studio, where he gave us a sneak peek of the die cutting machine he has created which - inspired by the cover of his last book 'Negative Space' - purposely bares a strong resemblance to a dog.
Through his Cut It Out installation Bar revisits a recurring theme in his work, that of negative space. Bar seems fascinated by the possibilities of manipulating the part of an image that our eyes often omit. The designer explores working within that space in an ingenious way: transforming the neglected to the protagonist.
Visitors at the exhibition will get a chance to engage with Bar's creative process - by feeding sheets of specially made dies into the jaws of the dog-like machine, they will be able to create their own personalised Noma Bar cut-out.
Bar joined the army right after graduating from high school, an experience that has had a clear influence in his work. He tells us how his pencil and his paints have always been his weapon, his escape, a relief in times of hardship.
Currently working on a new book - the details of which he chooses not to reveal, yet he does tell us that his new work will look into relationships and sex, the notion of love and death, the contrast between existing and vanishing into the universe from one moment to the next. These are the things that currently drive Bar's pen to draw on blank paper.
Cut It Out will be running at Outline Editions gallery from the 17th of September to the 1st of October, a selection of Noma Bar's prints will be showcased alongside the installation.
Text by Athina Kontonikolaki for Crane.tv
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