About The Pegasus Papers -Wallpaper Designs
The four wallpaper designs in the series are: Pegasus in Africa, The Carousel and The Moon, Hermes’s River Journey and The Theatre and The Thames. Taken collectively and in that order, they form a narrative, but not one that is fixed or made explicit. Instead, viewers are invited to construct their own versions, a process which is likely to occur spontaneously (see ‘Background to the Wallpaper Designs’ section).
Each wallpaper design is made up of between 10 and 16 pen and ink drawings on paper. These have been scanned, then arranged in patterns intended to maximise their harmony, and their ability to ‘speak’ to each other and to the viewer. The images themselves are derived from The Masque of Blackness Reimagined (2018) and The Marriage of The Thames and The Rhine (2010), but they are new interpretations, not mere reproductions.
The wallpaper designs are digitally printed, a process which gives great versatility in terms of scale and colour. They are available in two sizes (104x104cm and 140x140cm, each with a half drop repeat) and 20 different colourways. See The Pegasus Papers-Wallpapers . All permutations can be ordered by the metre. (See how to order)
The Pegasus Papers in their entirety - the four digitally printed wallpaper designs and the pen and ink drawings on paper (see below) - will be exhibited together in 2025. (See Next Show)
For more detail on each of the designs. (See here , click on the design, or the button below)
The Pegasus Papers - Wallpaper Designs
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
The Pegasus Papers continue the narrative of my hand-drawn animations The Masque of Blackness Reimagined (2018) and The Marriage of The Thames and The Rhine (2010) (see here to view them). The project takes characters and motifs central to these animations, employing them in a different context that opens up a new range of imaginative possibilities. This time, the images are still. Or rather, they are still until the viewer forms connections between them and begins to animate them for themselves.
The project comprises four digitally printed wallpaper designs and a collection of the pen and ink drawings combined to create them. The wallpapers collectively form a series, but each of them stands as a meaning-laden work in its own right. Similarly, the drawings on which they are based can be explored and enjoyed individually. (See images below)
Design 1 Pegasus in Africa - digitally printed wallpaper - 104cm x 104cm half drop repeat (2024)
Design 2 The Carousel and The Moon- digitally printed wallpaper - 104cm x 104cm half drop repeat (2024)
Design 2 The Carousel and The Moon (Inverted) digitally printed wallpaper - 104cm x 104cm half drop repeat (2024)
Design 3 Hermes’s River Journey digitally printed wallpaper - 104cm x 104cm half drop repeat (2024)
Design 4 The Theatre and The Thames digitally printed wallpaper - 104cm x 104cm half drop repeat (2024)
The Drawings below are all from The Pegasus Papers (2024) The Masque of Blackness (2018). They are shown here to highlight the connection of the two projects.
Drawings in charcoal on paper from The Masque of Blackness (2018) showing the connection between the two projects, The Pegasus Papers and The Masque of Blackness
Background to The Pegasus Papers - Wallpaper Designs
Connecting the process of hand-drawn animation to the repeats in narrative-style wallpapers has been a long, continuous journey for me.
The earliest links in the chain were the hours I spent as a child staring at my mother’s 18th century- style Toile de Jouy wallpaper. I’d imagine the scenes they depicted blending together, with the images, figures and animals moving and meeting.
More recently, Ancient Chinese Handscroll Paintings seen at the RA in 2006 and The Bayeaux Tapestry in Northern France inspired me with their capacity to ignite the viewer’s imagination. Specifically, I was entranced by the way in which they somehow convinced me that the images were moving. In reality, of course, it was me that was doing this, but the skilful use of narrative and repetition created the impression that it was the other way around.
Between 2006 and 2011 I painted many Chinoiserie-style wall paintings, working with clients to transform their homes. In traditional Chinoiserie, every tree, flower and bird has meaning. Their positioning and the colours employed aim to create an atmosphere of tranquillity, harmony and delight
Les Travaux de la Manufacture printed on cotton in Jouy -en Josas 1792-94 at Oberkampf Factory - Design by Jean Baptiste Huet 1745-1811
In 2011, I visited the Toile de Jouy Museum just outside Paris and saw the wallpaper designs of Jean Baptiste Huet. Typically made up of between 14 and 16 scenes, they were timelessly beautiful, with palpable energy movement. It was here that I first made a conscious connection between the storytelling power of Toile de Jouy and traditional hand-drawn animations. When these 18th Century designs are repeated over a wall, narratives start to suggest themselves almost irresistibly. But there is no sense of coercion. Although many of the wallpapers carry powerful political messages, the viewer is free to animate them at their own pace and in whatever way appeals to them, perhaps varying the storyline at different times. I was struck by the fluidity of the responses that the wallpapers elicited.
Like Chinese scroll paintings, the Bayeaux Tapestry, Chinoiserie and Toile de Jouy, the wallpapers of The Pegasus Papers project are not designed to be simply decorative. Packed with symbolism and narrative potential, they seek above all to stimulate the imagination.
The kangxi Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour - Scroll V1 - 21m long 17th Century China - Artist Wang Hui
The Bayeaux Tapestry (detail) tapestry 70m long x 23cm - depicitng The Battle of Hastings 1066
Text edited by Johnny Acton