Create your own scene, baby! Project Report, Suzanne Schiller

With the reinvention of wallpaper we were given a task to reflect on three traditional themed wall coverings; Hortus Botanicus, Toile de jouy and Trompe l’oeil. After exploring the tree avenues I was drawn to the poetic and amusement of the everyday scenes in Toile de jouy. I wanted to develop a collection that was personal and a topic you don’t regularly see. Using the theme of everyday scenes my immediate thought came to creating well known biblical stories. I have seen in the past borders for children’s room in the theme of Noah’s Ark but have yet to see biblical themes for the mature audience. With this theme I could see a larger market in America with the great population of Christian churches and communities. Currently there is a trend in America using scriptures from the bible which is transferred onto walls using thin matte vinyl. The family business who started this is Fruitful Vine Creations.
Wallpaper has been around for centuries and seen many revivals. With the fast growth of digital technology in the past decade we have seen a change in contemporary wallpaper designs. Wall covering is becoming a vast market exploring various ways of decorating walls. The trend today is having a featured wall displaying highly decorative imagery or large prints such as floral. It has become the norm to see wallpaper with graphical imagery and patterns such as Basso and Brooke, Hanna Weming and Markus Benesch. Digital technology has allowed designers to explore the use of collaged techniques and images as seen in the works of Clare Coles and Linda Florence. Along with bold prints we are also seeing rich colours, metallic highlights, geometric shapes and elusions. Applying decorative wall coverings has become user friendly and affordable. There is a rise in interactive wallpaper such as the designs from Rachel Kelly. An easer form of applying wallpaper called paste the wall technology allowing you to apply the paste to the wall and hang the paper dry from the roll, which Julien Macdonald uses for his wallpaper design. With all these new forms of media designers are still looking back to historical wallpaper designs such as Art Nouveau with Birgit Amadori, Oriental Art with Neisha Crosland, Arts and Crafts with Louise Body and Toile de Jouy with Timorous Beasties. Wall covering designs have also branched out into other materials such as glass. I have seen more recently store windows covered with decorative frosted glass created using a technique called manifestation the use of glass film. A company in America called Window Film World creates decorative window film, etched glass and window views in many subjects including religious imagery. Artist Barbara Deakyne from America and Carline Rees produce beautifully decorative etched glass for windows, doors and dividers. Martin Donlin at architectural glass artist creates contemporary stained glass, acid-etched and enameled glass in large scale with intensely colourful designs as seen in Southampton offices, Indianapolis airport, many churches and health care in England. A decorative wall covering is reaching out into all areas of surfaces with many new and traditional techniques.

Having the opportunity to spend a week in London I took advantage of the key museums researching Christian artifacts and Toile de jouy wallpaper. The Royal Academy of Arts held an exhibition of Byzantium art through 330-1453, which ranged from ornaments to paintings and decorative bibles. I also went to the British Museum for their collection which dated back to the 4th century AD. Artifacts from both museums had several detailed illustrations carved into ivory; the use of gold was heavily seen in paintings and ornaments displaying the rich importance of the subject. The figures from the early 3rd and 4th century were simplistic illustrated scenes from the bible and saints. The 5th and 6th century images became highly decorative with elaborate patterns onto ivory such as Triptych with Deisis and Saints where the figures and their clothing are more detailed. Paintings had also evolved in the stylization of scenery and colours, yet some still had flat unrealistic quality within the figures such as Icon with Virgin and Child. The National Gallery displays of religious paintings from artist such as Leonardo da Vinci and Gerrit Van Honthorst have more of a dramatic and realistic style seen in the 16th century.
The Victoria and Albert museum’s textile collection had a large range of English and French Toile de jouy tapestries dating from the 15th to 18th century .These Toile’s were printed by copper plate rollers onto cotton, colours ranging in blues and red. The Toile’s portrayed country scenes of workers and entertainment with lots of tree and plants. All of the designs I viewed had a cross hatch technique and ranged in different repeat patterns.
In the archives of Manchester Whitworth Gallery, we were shown samples of wallpaper designs dating back to the 15th century. The original production of wallpaper was created by book printers who would create prints using wooden blocks and often painted by hand. Papers derived from Asia and were rectangular sheets often made from rice paper or woven grass. One example shown of the rectangular sheets was Vues de l’Inde a 1815 style Trompe l’oeil where the sheets of paper were pieced together to create a wall covering. Oriental wallpaper has always attracted the western cultures especially during the 17th century. Japanese prints had a solid background colour with images of flowers, birds and people which were applied wet on wet; this often caused a blending of colours. In the 18th century decorative leather was used to cover walls placed with tacks in each corner. This technique was shown in the Glitz exhibition illustrating the long process of beating the design into the leather and applying layers of varnish. Leather wallpaper would have been displayed by the wealthy. The 1800’s saw a rise in wallpaper designs with the invention of the first machine to print wallpaper by Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf in 1785. This allowed mass production and accessibility to a larger population. We learnt often patterns would repeat in each room, to alter colours and studies would have dark rich colour. Border designs of friezes and floral’s would line the tops of high Victorian rooms. Often wallpaper did not repeat they would be separated by trees and would have 1/3 of the design as sky allowing wallpaper to fit different lengths of walls and buyers to afford sections.
The rise of mass produced wallpaper also saw a high exportation to America and Europe. In the 19th century floral designs were very popular especially among women. As the French were advanced in their designs with the use of floral there was a control on English designs which had to be flat and stylized. The manufactures did not want people copying French designs but wanted designers to have a new way of thinking while keeping the integrity of English designs. After the World War scenes in wallpaper became much lighter and modern. The 20th century saw a rise in wallpaper with themed designs for each room, images of popular culture such as Flintstones, Barbie and geometric prints. The 50’s had fish paper in bathrooms when wallpaper had a washable coating. Paper became less quality for commercial use, and also experimented with vinyl.

After visiting museums in London and collecting research I came across these beautiful rich coloured stain glass windows from churches with contemporary biblical scenes. I loved the textures and colours shown in the designs and wanted to somehow get this effect across in the style of Toile de jouy and bible stories. I researched into decorative glass and found Caroline Rees who designs contemporary etched glass for windows, doors and screens. Her designs are filled with patterns like Klimt and illustrations such as houses. I then explored the idea of using window film. I began recording images of key plants written in the bible such as grape vines, palms, olive trees and other plants I photographed whilst in Israel. I made a survey asking people what their favorite bible story was and began illustrating a few. The key artist I looked at where Samson and Delilah from Andrea Montegna and Edward Hicks for styles of illustration, Manuel Canovas wallpaper for traditional drawing techniques and the movie Passion of the Christ for scenes and costume.
Stepping back from the designs I collected feed back from others and began to analyze who I was marketing this design to and where they would be placed. I began looking at the photographs I took whiles in Israel and started to focus on the environment of Israel during the time of Jesus. These images depicted crowds of people, houses crammed and built on top of each other in Jerusalem and the wildlife. From there I began experimenting with collage, painting on textured wallpaper and using gesso on wood. Looking at two pieces of work, one which had collage images on textured wallpaper and the other outlines of a crowd, the idea of creating images using spray paint onto textured wallpaper emerged. I used three photographs taken of graffiti walls, images of carvings into wood in Jerusalem and the works of Banksy to drive this inspiration.
I chose this subject because it is very dear to me and after visiting Israel I have great admiration for the land and culture. Its land is filled with vast agriculture and rich in history. With all its abundant beauty there also comes conflict within the land, battles between property and religion. I have looked at this project from a Christian perspective, but while I was in Jerusalem in the Old City Market you could see the divide between the four religions- Christian, Jewish, Moslem and Armenian. After talking to one of the Moslem market owners and hearing his family history of owning his small store and how he wishes he could sell art work from his culture, I was able to gain another perspective for the desires of this land. Whether it’s the continual battle for the promise land or wars with Gaza the people of Israel are having their say and acting in rebellion such as the graffiti on the Jerusalem walls.
The collection I have created illustrates elements of Israel and Jerusalem’s environment. I chose images of crowds of people, healing within the land, live stock and Jerusalem’s buildings. The images of stacked houses relates to Olivia White who designed city landscapes and Cole & Son- Mediterranea with the continual layering of
buildings. Taking the same concept of depicting featured elements from a city such as Timorous Beasties Toile of London, I have used for the Jerusalem scenes. The style I worked towards relates to Banksy spray paint graffiti’s around London. There are several ways I can see this concept implementing onto decorative wall coverings. The designs can be versatile to interior as well as exterior and they can be interactive creating stencils for customers to create their own spray paint scene. I also looked at explored the idea of creating etched glass designs with the crosses on plastic plates.