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Oriental Orchid Red and Greens on Black Wallpaper

A work made of wallpaper.
Timorous Beasties

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  • A work made of wallpaper.

Date:

2005

Artist:

Timorous Beasties (Scottish, founded 1990)
Alistair McAuley (Scottish, born 1967)
Paul Simmons (English, born 1967)

About this artwork

Trained as textile designers, Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons of the Glasgow-based design studio Timorous Beasties have become known for inventive wallpapers that riff on traditional damasks and toiles to fuse sensuous florals and bucolic scenes with provocative images and incisive social commentary. For their Oriental Orchid wallpaper, Timorous Beasties employed a four-screen hand-printing process to produce lush vertical columns of bold red orchids and dark green leaves overlaying subtle line drawings of Japanese Manga-inspired geisha characters. This wallpaper showcases the double nature of these innovative designers’ practice, in which a dedication to highly skilled technique and traditional forms of the decorative arts provides the perfect opportunity to stage a slightly bawdy critique of historical and cultural tropes concerning the exotic.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Architecture and Design

Artist

Timorous Beasties (Designer)

Title

Oriental Orchid Red and Greens on Black Wallpaper

Place

Scotland (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

2005

Medium

Wallpaper

Credit Line

Funds provided by the Architecture & Design Society and Gift of Timorous Beasties

Reference Number

2010.5

Copyright

© Timorous Beasties.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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