Having just done a quick check it turns out my Japanese vocabulary stands at five words, and my Tamil and Laotian are considerably worse, but that isn’t stopping me from enjoying Asian Subconscious – a poster collection put together by Singaporean gallery Kult. Using a universal visual language, ten of the country’s top graphic designers have created the limited edition set of prints united by their Asian cultural influences.
Some are more obviously Asian-y (Asian-ish? Asian-ary? Oh yeah. Asian) than others. Where You Going has taken characters from four existing alphabets, dismantled them and put them back together to make a whole new, but recognisable, language. Masafa is at the more abstract end of the spectrum with colourful, painterly blocks. The central black stroke is taken from the Arabic script, which was adapted for the Singaporean Jawi tongue. Mojoko’s pulpy packaging decorates a typical Chinese medicine box with a picture of that famous self-medicator William Burroughs. Asian Subconscious is running at the National Design Centre’s Kapok pop-up until 29 March, and the posters are available to buy from Kult’s online store.
Mojoko,
Naked Lunch.
Where You Going,
A new dawn. A new day.
Jonathan Yuen,
Keep Calm, Carry On.
Bloodthrone
LSD,
Black Sticky Rice.
