i-Dentity: 25 years of i-D Magazine

February 2, 2006 to February 25, 2006.

Curated by Terry Jones

i-Dentity: an exhibition celebrating 25 years of  i-D magazine

‘Identity is the individual thumbprint to our DNA. Humanity is at the core of i-D’s editorial ethic – to give space to a range of people with contrasting constructive opinions irrespective of religion, colour, nationality or social background. With ideas travelling through the web of digital communication faster than at any other time in history, i-D will continue to feature the diverse environment we are privileged to live and work in.’
Terry Jones, i-D Magazine Founder and i-Dentity

EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
In August 1980 a publishing phenomenon was born. Heralding in a new generation of print enterprises, i-D magazine – a worldwide manual of style was created by Terry Jones, on a mission to explore London’s thrilling street culture – a scene that was being largely ignored by mainstream fashion. Conceived of during his time as art director at British Vogue, i-D would soon set the template for that much-celebrated publishing genre – the style magazine.

i-D magazine, was one of the first arenas where the barriers between art and fashion photography were assaulted. In the process, key moments in the explosion of global popular culture were captured on its pages. The magazine has had an incredible impact at the cutting edge of high fashion, art and street culture shaping the way a generation looked at itself and looked at itself looking at its self.

August 2005 marked 25 years of i-D Magazine and in celebration of this journey, Terry Jones has directed and curated the current exhibition first launched in London.

The show follows in the footsteps of the Smilei-D exhibition (2001 – present) in its drive to bring the i-D ethos to an even wider global audience and, as Jones points out, ‘to inspire people to capitalise on their own creative potential. The core of i-D’s international appeal’, he adds, ‘is how its fashion and ideas communicate beyond language barriers and nationality.’

The exhibition aims to capture the richness of i-D’s archive, tracing its history of cutting edge thinking, imagery and design. In addition a collection of new work has been commissioned which continues to explore the theme of identity working as ever on the subcultures working at fashion and art’s fringes.

Indeed Jones’ approach to art direction, as seen in all aspects of the exhibition, has been one of experiment and innovation. Expressing a strong interest in the notion of personal creativity, he has given i-D’s collaborators free rein to explore their ideas. Combining graphics and photography as well as conversations, music, projections and scent, the resulting exhibition is an intriguing, multi-sensory experience. Seven scent curators, for example, have been chosen to create a smell based on a five-year period of i-D history (imprinted onto fans). From the ‘80s recollections of Stephen Jones, Caryn Franklin and Kirsten Owen to Edward Enninful and Avril Mair’s thoughts from the Nineties and on towards Liz Hancock and Jeremy Scott’s signature notes for the new millennium, these scents have been produced in partnership with Symrise, the innovative leader of the worldwide fragrance industry. Meanwhile, in other areas of the exhibition, spoken interviews from the i-D archives work to represent i-D magazine’s 25 years and specially-commissioned soundtracks – from Michael Kopelman, David Dorrell, James Lavelle, Pablo Psychonaut, Dean Langley and Frédéric Sanchez – serve to conjure up the moves and moods of the different eras.

CONTRIBUTORS – OVER 100 LUMINARIES
Over 100 past and current luminaries from all sides of the creative spectrum have been approached to contribute to this exhibition.

Agnes b, Alasdair McLellan, Alex McDowell, Ali Madhavi, Anette Aurell, Anuschka Blommers and Neils Schumm, Armin Linke, Bernhard Willhelm, Christian Witkin, Corinne Day, Craig McDean, Dave Dorrell, David Armstrong, David Bailey, David LaChapelle, David Sims, Dennis Morris, Dylan Jones, Donald Christie, Edward Enninful, Ellen von Unwerth, Eugene Souleiman, Frederic Sanchez, Harmony Korine, Havana Laffitte, Hussein Chalayan, James Lavelle, Jane How, Jason Evans, Jean Baptiste Mondino, Jeremy Scott, Judy Blame, Juergen Teller, JT Leroy, Kate Moss, Kayt Jones, Kirsten Owen,Kuang-Yu Tsui, Mana Bernardes, Marcus Tomlinson, Mario Sorrenti, Mark Borthwick, Mark Lebon, Matt Jones, Max Vadukul, Michael Kopelman, Michael Roberts, Michel Gaubert, Nathaniel Goldberg, Nick Knight, Olafur Eliasson, Paolo Roversi, Pat McGrath, Richard Burbridge, Sean Ellis, Shannon Plumb, Simon Foxton, Solve Sundsbo, Stephen Jones, Steven Klein, Su Mei Tse, Takashi Homma, Terry Richardson, Timur Celikdag, Vanina Sorrenti, Warren du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones, Wing Shya, Wolfgang Tillmans, Xu Zhen, Michel Gaubert.

ABOUT
i-D was launched in 1980 as a fanzine dedicated to the street style of punk-era London and soon became essential reading for the fashion-aware. i-D has now grown into a glossy magazine that documents fashion and contemporary media, and has gone a long way toward defining it. The wink and smile on each front cover – a graphic representation of the magazine’s logo – have become integral to the i-D identity; obvious yet understated, an icon in the world of fashion and media.

In 2001, i-D’s influence was recognised with the publication by Taschen of ‘Smile i-D: Fashion And Style, The Best From 20 Years Of i-D’, a 600-page retrospective book which was sold internationally. This was followed in 2002 by ‘Fashion Now’, an anthology of contemporary designers produced by the i-D team and published by Taschen in seven languages. i-D has also held numerous exhibitions worldwide; venues include the Musée Des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Art Directors Club in New York, the Armani flagship store in Milan, Spiral Hall in Tokyo, Colette in Paris, the Laboratorio Arte Alameda in Mexico City and Museo Nacional Bellas Artes in Santiago. i-D’s website was established in 2001 and currently receives over 1.5 million hits each month, reinforcing the magazine’s spirit and ethos to a global audience.

(This text was written in collaboration with the Fashion and Textile Museum, London).