Walls are talking

Renne Green: Commemorative toile 1992

A while ago I visited an exhibition at the Whitworth gallery, walls are talking. I found some of the wall paper designs to be very inspiring and visually exciting to look at, others I felt were slightly odd and could not even imagine them on the walls of anyones homes! The exhibition displayed work by over 30 artists, one of whom was Damien Hirst and Francesco Simeti. Rather than the stereotypical kitsch ideas about wallpaper, the artists have displayed messages on racism, gender and cultural conflicts upon the wallpapers. The exhibition was grouped around a few specific themes, sexuality, commodification, imprisonment and subversion.

Francesco Simeti: Arabian nights 2003

Although there were lots of different designs I enjoyed there were a couple that really stood out. I particularly enjoyed the work that was shown by Francesco Simeti and Renne Green. I thought both pieces were visually exciting and when looking closer at them they seemed to have been almost telling a story rather than just a pretty pattern. It was like having a piece of history or a novel shown on the wall paper.

I really enjoyed this exhibition and thought some of the wallpapers were really interesting and inspirational. Wallpaper was something I had never thought about designing or having a go at, maybe this could be brought into a future project?