Walls Are Talking2010

This book is to be published on the occasion of a major touring exhibition of historic and contemporary wallpapers, organized by the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. Inherently ephemeral and often overlooked, wallpaper has been seen as the poor relation of the decorative arts, and by the later 20th century wallpaper had become a bit of a joke, a cliché with connotations of kitsch—hardly the most obvious medium for a contemporary avant-garde artist. However, during the past two decades, artists exploring themes of home, memory and identity have created installations with backdrops of specially designed wallpaper which has played a crucial part in the mise en scène. Some have used wallpaper as pictorial polemic by illustrating, for example, warfare or racism, and others have made visually...