Community-Accountable Design

Journal

MMMMM…Gendai Kitchen Identity

Gendai Gallery‘s current project, MMMMM…Gendai Kitchen, launched on August 28 at Gibraltar Point, Toronto with a performance by Lisa Myers. miijim for time-beings was a response to Myung-Sun Kim’s art multiple,time being. We are proud to have collaborated with Gendai Gallery on this innovative subscription series that delivers food-inspired artist multiples once each season from Summer 2016 to Spring 2017.

Gendai Kitchen Red Logo

Myung-Sun Kim’s work will be followed by multiples from Mitchell Akiyama (Fall), Ed Pien (Winter), and Karen Tam (Spring). Each piece will arrive to subscribers’ homes complete with a signed edition certificate that contains information about the work its and care. Partnering artists Lisa Myers, Diane Borsato, Lesley Loksi Chan, and Stu Sakai will each host seasonal events that respond to the art multiples.

Image Art Met
Time being by Myung-Sun Kim — the first of four seasonal multiples from MMMMM…Gendai Kitchen

MMMMM…Gendai Kitchen extends Gendai Gallery’s mandate of programming contemporary art from an East Asian perspective. It is a new collaborative, mobile model of art engagement that deals with complex histories connected to art, food, politics, and culture. This model allows Gendai Gallery to continue to exist without a physical gallery space.

sketch -Breaking down -smaller version
Initial logo sketches

MMMMM…Gendai Kitchen is concerned with both gastronomic and cultural consumption, digestion, and fermentation. The many roles that bacteria play in relation to food — breaking it down, creating new substances, as well as infecting food — inspired our logo design.

Gendai Gallery thrives by being able to dismantle to create; being makeshift, improvised, and temporary is its strength. Inspired by the bacteria, fermentation, and the modularity of the Korean alphabet, the M of the logo breaks down into its constituent parts. The logo design read counter-clockwise shows the M is breaking down, read clockwise it is building up reflecting the transformative nature of Gendai.

Prospectus 6 designs
Subscription prospectus pages

It was pleasure to collaborate with Gendai Gallery on the MMMMM…Gendai Kitchen logo, edition certificates, prospectus, and website.

To order a limited edition subscription, visit kitchen.gendaigallery.org.