Wall(tracing)paper

As I enjoyed working with tracing paper on the piece "Anthurium", I decided to further experiment with it in a wallpaper based project. What I particularly liked about the tracing paper as a medium was its transparency, lightness and movement, and it was these three elements I wanted to accentuate in this wallpaper design.

I wanted to create a wallpaper that would interact with the presence of the people who walked by without being overtly visible. The use of plain tracing paper links to the opinion that much of the time, everyday wallpaper goes unnoticed-it is not until somebody passes by this wallpaper that its presence becomes clear. The thin, cut-out strips sway and rustle lightly as the person moves and displaces the air infront of it.

As is often the case, time and space restraints meant I was only able to produce one strip of wallpaper for the 'Link' exhibition (mid year exhibition) so it was not as effective as it could have been if it covered more space. However, I plan to further this work and possibly collaborate with a fellow student who's work is based around the movement of people. We will look into the possibilities of projection onto the wallpaper ans well as filmed documentation and photography.

Front Design Company "Rat Wallpaper"

This particular piece of work is perhaps one of my favourite pieces of alternative wallpapers I have seen. The artists placed rolls of plain white wallpaper in a cage with some rats, knowing that the rats would inevitably gnaw at the paper making holes through it. As the paper is unrolled, a lace effect emerges that is entirely the rats' design. This "Rat Wallpaper" is then hung in front of existing wallpaper, revealing small sections of it to the viewer. This way there is a comparison between traditional decorative design and contemporary art.
The piece challenges the usual role of decoration and indeed challenges how decoration can be created. Front Design Company is in a way handing over the design aspects of their wallpaper to a more spontaneous creator, removing their own control and allowing risk to take over.
Like the majority of Front's work, what stands out the most with this is its humour, and it is this refreshing lighthearted take on the subject that makes it such a favourite of mine.

Linda Florence "Sugar Floors"

Linda Florence is an arist I have become interested in while researching for my university dissertation. Her work, like mine, is based around interiors, especially wallpaper. This particular piece named "One of a Kind Tea Dance" was installed in 2008 in the V&A museum as part of the artist's "Sugar Floors" project.
The piece is a floral wallpaper-like print applied to the floor of the gallery using white sugar and presumably a stencil. Ballroom dancers then took to the floor; their graceful movements shifting the original sugar pattern, creating a new pattern with the traces of their dance steps and turns.
By doing this, the artist is allowing an element of risk into the work as it is not certain where the dancers will go, how the pattern will change and whether the new pattern will be effective or not. With much of her work, Florence challenges the normal concept of wallpaper and pattern. Here she pushes the boundaries of the medium by placing a wallpaper pattern on the floor. Why should we stop when the wall reaches the floor or ceiling?
I think this piece is extremely beautiful and delicate and is a refreshing way of using the medium of wallpaper when so many others use it as a tool for political comment. However it is questionable as to whether the piece can still be considered a wallpaper when it is placed on the floor. But then again, who can possibly say?!
It was interesting that I came across this piece after I produced my work for the No.5 Balmoral project as the basic concept is so similar. It has however increased my interest in interactive patterns and decoration, and Florences other work has opened up many new ideas of manipulating the medium of wallpaper.

Christopher Pearson "Environment sensitive wallpaper"

For many wallpaper designers and artists, William Morris has been a huge influence. This is clear with artist Christopher Pearson and his piece "Environment sensitive wallpaper". This design is almost a replica of Morris's "Willow Boughs" 1887, with the same repeats and very similar colours. However, the wallpaper pattern is created in a way so that it reacts with UV exposure and the temperature in the room that it is displayed in. The effect is that the pattern develops 'naturally' over time the more exposure it gets; and appears to grow and spread over the paper. Presumably this is done using heat and light sensitive paper or paint but there is little information given about this.
The fact that it's reactants are heat and UV exposure poses questions on the wider environment and the effects we have on the planet and the environments we live in.

I would like to find out more about the technical methods the artist has used as it would be very useful for me to use as a method of conveying my own wallpaper designs and ideas on horticultural patterns.

Floral Wall Hanging

"Floral Wall Hanging" is a textile piece I created for the Collective Vision exhibition, part of the Free For Arts Festival. Staying with the theme of interior decoration, i created this piece to experiment with different elements such as time and alternative methods of developing a design or pattern. Previously, my work centred around its interaction with the viewer or vise-versa, this time however I wanted to focus on reaction rather than interaction. I wanted an item which, once set up, could be left over time to change and develop in its own way without interference from myself or other viewers.

Due to the time consuming nature of producing the fabric hanging, it was not necessarily as large as I'd have hoped, however the effect of the capillary action is still striking yet subtle at the same time. What I enjoyed most about this piece is that, once in place, I had no control over how the colour spread and absorbed into the fabric and so some element of the final design is left unknown.

The capillary action is the most important element of the wall hanging as it is this link to horticulture that follows through the majority of my wallpaper and fabric designs. I intend to continue with this idea of capillary action and "growth" of pattern and colour within the wallpaper/wall hanging.

No.5 Balmoral

No.5 Balmoral was a group project based in an unused house in Fallowfield, Manchester. The idea was to each take a room or area of the house and use it to display our own workand styles.
I continued with my theme of interior decoration and wallpaper to create a piece of work for the hall and stairway of the house.
The idea for this exhibition developed from my contextual studies course at university in which i studied how images of apocalypse have been protayed in art. The study posed interesting questions about the existance of everything from the mundane to the spectacular and how everything has a shelf life. I chose to portray this view through the medium of wallpaper using hands-on techniques that would convey the concept of degradation and destruction in a delicate and fragile manner.
I used a 'pouncing' technique to apply a charcoal pattern directly onto the plastered walls. Due to the nature of the technique and material, the images oculd be easily smudged and brushed off the walls and so when the house was full of people at the opening, their presence and movement past the work ultimately destroyed it; physically showing its transcient nature.

If i was to reproduce this work, i would choose a more intricately detailed pattern that would perhaps be more visible in the space. I would also possibly record the work over time using video as well as photography to better record the process.

'Pouncing'

Pouncing is a technique I first came across when watching an interview with the 2009 Turner Prize winner, Richard Wright.

His award winning piece was a fresco made from gold leaf on a wall in one of the large gallery spaces of the Tate Britain. The image was a symmetrical, damask stayle pattern which, close up, contains many different styles and periods of artwork to reflect the surroundings and architecture of the piece.

To create the fresco, Wright used an age-old, extremely time consuming technique called 'pouncing'. this is where a cartoon of the image is drawn on paper and then holes are pierced into it along the lines of the drawing. The cartoon is placed on the wall and chalk or charcoal is rubbed over the holes to create a duplicate or 'ghost' of the image. This is then covered with size (a light adhesive) and golf leaf is applied to the top.

The effect of this particular piece is of a shimmering image that appears like a mirage. The delicacy of the fresco gives the impression that it could disappear at any moment. This of course is partly true. As with much of Wright's work, the piece is temporary and its life span is only as long as the exhibition stands. After this, the fresco is painted over and ceases to exist.