Media shown: exhibition graphics, banner, didactic wallpaper, concept graphic, exhibition brochure, object labels, gallery interactive, interior promotional signage
In 2014 the Rubin Museum of Art mounted the exhibition Bodies in Balance exploring the Tibetan science of healing which is based on three forces—wind, bile, and phlegm—that govern physical and mental well being. Using a brief questionnaire, visitors were invited to determine which of the three forces is dominant in their constitutions and follow a color-coded pathway that highlights the exhibition components most relevant to them.
I was charged with devising a visual system to represent the three forces and with implementing the system throughout the museum, from a 3-sided 50-foot banner, the questionnaire itself, an exhibition web resource, "tour stop" labels and an interactive pulse-taking activity in the galleries, to signage in the museum's cafe, shop and restrooms.
The system used three color-coded leaves suspended in balance around the edge of a circle. The leaf motif was derived from a convention in Tibetan instructional medical paintings in which each of the forces are represented as a branch of a single tree, and different treatments or symptoms are depicted on the leaves of the branches.
