When we see a storage system, and I’m talking about any kind of storage system, a fruit box or an inter-governmental ballistic weapons storage facility, we are reminded of all the things that have been kept safe and transported and protected since the beginning. But something happened in the nineteenth century: we moved from a society of artisans to a society of industrialists, from the town tot he city, and we had all these new objects to take care of and transport from the centre to the periphery and back again.
— Matthew Holman
Inspired by a ‘70s Kung-Fu magazine, Plaster is a collectable poster magazine where each issue is dedicated to a leading creative practice of today. Issue 6 is centred on leading design studio Perron-Roettinger, and launches on 6 October 2022.
Devised by brothers Milo Astaire and Finn Constantine, each issue of Plaster is totally bespoke and designed in an organic collaboration with its featured creative. Previous issues include Harley Weir, Kenny Scharf, Harland Miller, and Kudzanai Violet-Hwami. The Face said 'unlike traditional mags, each issue is completely dedicated to the cover star, and is formatted as a collectible poster,’ while SHOWstudio added Plaster is a ‘publication for youth obsessed by contemporary art, giving unique, intimate access to the modern day idols of the art world. ’
Founded by Willo Perron and Brian Roettinger, Perron–Roettinger have distinguished a respected international reputation for design collaborations with brands such as Nike, Helmut Lang, and Roc Nation. They have designed Jay Z’s 4:44 album visual identity, retail interiors for Skims, Stüssy and Yeezy Studio; and publications for artists like Yoshitomo Nara, Alex Israel and Henry Taylor. Perhaps most known for their ambitious and iconic stage designs, the duo have collaborated with some of the world’s leading recording artists: Rihanna, Jay-Z, Florence + The Machine, Kanye West, Tame Impala, The XX, Kid Cudi and Drake, often producing bespoke animations alongside monumental lighting installations to create immersive and reverent settings for performance. For Plaster, the duo have totally re-designed the physical layout of the magazine. Continuing their experimental approach, this issue functions like a conceptual artwork. Instead of folding into an A1 poster, readers are given instructions to fold the magazine – in a six stage, origami-like fashion – into a
shape resembling a futuristic basket-cum-box. The three-dimensional, sculptural design challenges the cliche flat way magazines are understood and how posters are usually formatted. The reverse side is
produced from a mirrored material, reflecting the surroundings of the poster directly into a reader’s vision.
Distributed across the magazine are fragmented texts by Matthew Holman, Lecturer in English at University College London and regular contributor to Frieze and The Art Newspaper. The speculative texts explore different ways we use boxes. From everyday FedEx shipping to the invention of Origami, or the ways in which artists like Joseph Beuys and Marcel Duchamp have subversively redefined them, the compelling and imaginative texts ask why boxes – like time capsules – hold such a specific human resonance.