20th Anniversary Edition No 48 Autumn 2013 The Omnipendent The Omnipendent Omni timeline 1994 Cheque Mate In November 1994 the National Lottery was launched by Camelot and from the very beginning Omni has produced all manner of props, banners and branding for photo - calls and events. Plus just about every giant cheque for every winner, 2000+ over the past 19 years - In March 1993, out of the depths of recession, Omni and K2 but sadly none with our name on it! Screen were established in Clerkenwell, an area with a long Some of the props and gimmicks have history in the graphic arts field. The digital print revolution been quite bizarre and others just plain hadn't quite got underway so Omni was primarily photographic daft but they always seem to hit the spot. based, producing high quality Cibachrome prints and 35mm From a Giant Rolo packet, to staging and slides for presentations, imagine a world without PowerPoint? Despite the lack of hi tech equipment we soon earned a name branding for the launch of 4 airships. We for tackling the more unusual, challenging and often quirky continue to work with Camelot to this day projects, a reputation that has been reinforced over the years. and have just produced props for the 100 Millionaires "butlers" TV advert including The following pages contain some of the highlights of our first 20 branded trays, mocked up newspapers years and some examples of more recent projects. and other items. A Real Work of Art – Mark Wallinger at The Serpentine Gallery In the early 90's, just as Omni was getting under way, the contemporary art scene in London was really starting to take off with shows such as Young British Artists 1 & 2 at the Saatchi Gallery capturing wider public and media atten- tion. Many of those participat- ing artists are now internation- The Legend of The Omni Spoon: ally renowned, including Mark One Spoon – One Vision Wallinger. A growing interest, and at the time small involve- When Omni was established in March 1993 we had but one ment, in this world as well as a (stolen) tea spoon with which to stir our tea. Not for us the mutual passion for the decadent luxury of a whole set of six that would probably be thoroughbred racehorse led to down to one in as many months. No, we were made of our support (in kind) of Mark sterner stuff. Legend decreed that, should the spoon be Wallinger's first one man show lost, the future of Omni would be in grave jeopardy. at London’s celebrated Serpen- Seeing the Light A stirring symbol tine Gallery. We produced Having supported Mark Wallinger's show back in 1995 Omni Colour and K2 Screen faced a tough challenge - actually After 20 years loyal service the spoon is still with us, cast in everything from labels and producing a number of works for the esteemed artist involving just about all our processes and personnel. its own acrylic block, and Omni is going strong. Since that signage to press packs and These included See is Believing, which is made up of 3 large fabricated light-boxes with the standard eye-test circles, plus time we’ve expanded somewhat, what’s more our clients slides for the show and what text from the Old Testament screen printed on to Perspex fronts creating a dramatic alternative to an eye-test. Upside down expect and deserve their own clean spoon and so along the started out as something of an and back to front The Spirit meets the optic in illusion consists of a sprit bottle on an optic with mirror image label, when the way new sets have been purchased, at great expense. indulgence has led to a very bottle is positioned over a mirror the effect is complete. successful, challenging and enjoyable association with the art world. For more information visit: 1993 1995 1997 www.omnicolour.com Anniversary Edition 2013 The Omnipendent The Omnipendent Omni timeline 1999 2001 Nobody Does it Better In late 1999 The Serpentine Gallery, in a departure from its regular program Give & Take of cutting edge contemporary art, held an exhibition of the work of double Omni Colour and K2 Screen were proud to provide their support and Oscar winning film production designer Ken Adam, curated by his old friend sponsorship to Give & Take, an exciting and innovative exhibition which and esteemed curator David Sylvester. The show featured original visuals was organised by the Serpentine and staged in cooperation with the and concepts of his designs covering countless major movies, from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Presented in both locations, the exhibition James Bond series to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. provided a unique opportunity to experience unexpected connections Our task was to produce giant murals of his original concepts and still photo- between contemporary art and that of the past. graphs of the resultant sets of Dr Strangelove and Moonraker. The images, In the Serpentine, the German conceptual artist Hans Haacke filled the including those for the war room from Dr Strangelove, were scanned entire gallery with an amazing choice of objects from the V&A’s collec- retouched and printed in sections, and installed, with spectacular effect, on tions. Meanwhile at the V&A an internationally renowned group of all four walls of the south gallery up to a size of 9 metres wide by 3 metres contemporary artists, including Jeff Koons, Andres Serrano, Hiroshi high. I suppose we are biased but many sages commented that the installa- Sugimoto, Liza Lou and Marc Quinn. presented their work in galleries tion was the highlight of the show. throughout the museum. As well as the images for the Gallery walls K2 Screen also produced 250 The exhibition identity used a special florescent colour which Omni and signed limited edition prints of “The War Room, 1999” which sold very well, K2 Screen used to produce a variety of display, signage and banners for raising much needed revenue for the Serpentine exhibition programme, and both galleries. This included a florescent line of tape approximately 1000 featured as a competition prize on Film 99 when Jonathan Ross interviewed metres long that acted as a guide to the contemporary exhibits around the Ken Adam. galleries of the V&A - it can now be seen in the Tape Gallery!! Magnificent Obsession Seeing a Ghost In 2000, a pioneering Japa- After his triumph as Britain’s representative nese artist had a major survey at the 49th Venice Biennale,The Whitechap- of her work at The Serpentine el Gallery staged a one-man show of Mark Gallery. A contemporary of Wallinger’s work on November 16th 2001. and sometime collaborator of Many of the works which had graced the Pop Art king Andy Warhol, British Pavilion in Venice were featured in Yayoi Kusama has a self-de- the show including Time and Relative scribed obsession with nets, Dimensions in Space 2001 – a full-size, dots, food and sex. At least chrome plated ‘Tardis’ and Ghost, 2001 in two of these elements which a horn has been added to a black and featured strongly in the limited white negative treatment of Stubb’s famous edition print Pumpkin 2000, painting Whistlejacket, thus creating a which was specially created ghost-like unicorn. Together with an involve- by Kusama and printed by K2 ment in the production of several of the Screen. The original "yellow" works on view, Omni Colour and K2 Screen pumpkin edition sold out so were pleased to lend their support through quickly that it was printed as the printing of the promotional posters and a red and green editions, limited edition print of Ghost. The signed Is Art Beneath You raising vital funds for the In 1998 The Serpentine Gallery put together a rather novel project and numbered edition of 500 was on sale for gallery. For the exhibition we the bargain price of £75.00 and, having sold entitled "Is Art Beneath You", The gallery took old deck chair also produced a series of frames , discarded by the Royal Parks, and their education depart- out in a matter of days, they now sell for mounted prints entitled Walk- several thousands. ment organised work shops with everyone from local school ing Piece taken from a slide children and art students to workers from the Royal Parks. They projection produced in 1966 produced about 30 designs which K2 Screen printed on canvases featuring Kusama walking in that were stretched over the frames and lounged on by the public some of the less savoury for several months before being sold off to collectors. areas of New York dress in a bright pink floral kimono. For more information visit: 1998 2000 2001 www.omnicolour.com Anniversary Edition 2013 The Omnipendent The Omnipendent Omni timeline 2002 Expletives not deleted – Gilbert and George at the Serpentine 2003 25 years after it had previously been exhibited in three separate groups in 1977 (Silver Jubilee year) and 1978, Gilbert and George’s The Dirty Words Pictures Superfly - The Showroom Dummies 1977 was presented for the first time as a complete exhibition by The Serpen- During the previous seven years Omni had sponsored and supported a varie- tine Gallery. The pictures juxtaposed graffiti-ed swear words with disturbing ty of art and other projects, but we decided to take our involvement in the images of urban life and the bleak presence of the artists themselves. creative process one step further in 2003 with the launch of Showroom To support the Serpentine Gallery’s exhibition programme Gilbert and Dummies, an art led design company headed by artist Abigail Lane, with George very generously agreed to the printing of 10,000 posters each of two fashion designer Brigitte Stepputtis, and Omni MD Bob Pain.