High On Type

Description

The five Dutch artists Guido de Boer, Hans Schuttenbeld, Ivo Brouwer, Julien Priez and Vincent de Boer are all high on type. Naturally, their path to letter design came via the largest global typography-based art movement: graffiti. Not untypically for Dutch creatives who make the move from graffiti to other art forms, they then became increasingly specialised and proficient in their use of modern graphics and design styles.
While the basic scaffold of their practice remains the letter – or, at least, fragments thereof – High on Type have progressively, and transgressively, expanded their use of artistic media in all directions. This may involve lettering that sprawls across floors, walls and ceilings; lettering that is enacted in a live performance and then immediately overwritten, blurred or erased; or calligraphic designs that are transmuted into abstractions and then unfolded into an installation.
For this year’s Urban Art Biennale, High on Type have transformed a room tucked away in the former coking plant of the Völklingen Ironworks. Here they have created an intimate retreat with an almost sacred atmosphere, called The Shrine of Oblivion.

Robert Kaltenhäuser