Olaf Nicolai – Fillip Poster One + Two

Fillip Poster One and Two
Three-colour Irisdruk on Paper
68 x 98 cm, Unframed
Two Colour Variations

Colour is a major factor in a magazine’s “shelf appeal.” Olaf Nicolai’s project for Fillip 16, 2500 × Fillip 16, subverts this market pressure by printing the magazine in a technique called split fountain printing in which colour is undelineated and flows across the page regardless of the printed content. With its evocative, quasi-psychedelic effect, the technique was particularly popular in a 1960s countercultural context where it was used as a method to introduce colour in printed material without having to go through the expense of traditional four-colour printing.

Produced in tandem with Fillip 16’s print run, Nicolai’s Fillip Poster One and Two use the same split fountain technique to isolate the issue’s colour transitions onto single printed pages in two full-colour gradient variations. As with the magazine itself, the physical mixture of different inks across a single printing plate means that each poster is a unique original. Accordingly, the affective power of colour in relation to consumer behaviour is complicated by questions of value and circulation vis-à-vis the unique art object.

Olaf Nicolai is an artist who lives and works in Berlin. His work has been exhibited at documenta X, the Sydney Biennale, and the 51st Venice Biennale, as well as at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, among others.