Wallpaper, Art and Culture. 6th February – 3rd May 2010
Popped up to Manchester for the ‘Walls are Talking’ private view at the Whitworth Art Gallery. Outside of London, it has the UK’s largest collection of wallpapers and as it’s the first exhibition to bring together artists’ working with wallpaper, it’s definitely worth seeing.
As I am a huge fan of Thomas Demand it was great to have another chance to see his Ivy wallpaper hung in a vast space, although it did seem to be have little less impact than it had had at the Serpentine in 2006. I wondered if this was partly down to the enormous height of the Whitworth’s ceilings and also due to not including those large photographs that it was shown with at the Serpentine space, which made the room of ivy look like it had windows. What unnerves about this paper is the sense of being confined and constricted by the dense ivy, which is perhaps how it was supposed to make you feel. The feeling is strengthened knowing that Demand’s inspiration for the ivy pattern came from a series of photographs of a tavern; a site that had been the scene for a horrific child murder, killed by its mother and step- sister.
Inspiration for the Ivy wallpaper:
Thomas Demand, Klause - Tavern, © Thomas Demand-DACS
Another gruesome murder scene is enacted in Abigail Lane’s ‘Bloody Wallpaper’ where bloodstain hand prints of the murder victim on a plain cream background are on show. But on a lighter note! I also liked Catherine Bertola’s 3D-esque installations, they reminded me of Katsuyo Kamo’s paper cut outs for Chanel. She used soot from her fire to print or stamp the floral images, which were then cut out with some floating down the walls, very Alice in wonderland !
Catherine Bertola, Whitworth Walls Are Talking 2010
Her work was perhaps (for me) the most inspiring for pushing the boundaries and for leaving you with some kind of emotional sense. By using paper in a different way than just the flat she leads nicely towards Tracy Kendal’s work. I did wonder why she (Tracy) wasn’t included in this section as her work is a fine example of 3D art wallpaper and crosses the boundaries of art and designer very nicely. And there were other surprising omissions not just individuals but a whole era.
I know this exhibition focuses mainly on the 1970s onwards but it did seem a shame that there wasn’t a reference to the 40’s – 50’s period. For example the Coles and Sons wallpapers by leading artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Aldridge and Edward Bawden and Bowden’s again a little earlier for the Curwen Press. I had always thought that this was quite a good time for the cross over of artists working in wallpaper and of course more predominantly fabrics.
What ‘Walls are Talking’ says is that wallpaper isn’t just decorative but can be a medium for social commentary. It certainly is a thought-provoking exhibition, exploring themes of sexuality gender, race, war, outside in, chemical warfare, politics to mention a few with artists such as Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Michael Craig-Martin and Angus Fairhurst using wallpaper to make bold artistic statements. Sarah Lucas’ ‘Tits in Space’ always makes me smile with its cigarettes neatly arranged into compact, pert cones!
Tits in Space © Sarah Lucas, Courtesy of Sadie Coles HQ, London
This is definitely a thought provoking exhibition and very enjoyable, there were some pieces that were more pictures rather than wallpaper; especially the ones that were canvas stretched over frames, perhaps these could have been bigger pieces so that the effect could have been felt more. But that is what opens up the discussions on ‘when does a wallpaper become a work of art?’ The majority of the papers on show weren’t made for residential use making it a very interesting take on the wallpaper today issues.
Posted in botanical, design, interior design, pattern, review, wallpaper
