We don’t have an image of this object online yet. V&A Images may have a photograph that we can’t show online, but it may be possible to supply one to you. Email us at vaimages@vam.ac.uk for guidance about fees and timescales, quoting the accession number: E.419-1998
Find out about our images

Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, room 514a , Case SH, Shelf 33

Wallpaper

1989 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

In recent years artists have adopted wallpaper for installations, public art projects, and sometimes also to carry political messages. The Canadian artists' collective General Idea designed a wallpaper based on Robert Indiana's famous 'Love' screenprint from 1967, but replaced the letters L.O.V.E. with A.I.D.S. They used this logo to promote Aids awareness in public places and they printed it on carrier bags and posters as well as wallpaper. It has been exhibited in many museums and galleries - including the V&A exhibition 'Graphic Responses to Aids' in 1996. The image gives us an apt metaphor for the action of the HIV virus itself - it is as if the Love motif has been 'infected' and has mutated from something benign to something dangerous; like the cells invaded by HIV it has kept its form but changed its nature. And by repeating the motif in a repeating wallpaper pattern we might see it as imitating the replication of the HIV virus in the host cells. But General Idea also intended something more positive when they reproduced this stark acronym as a wallpaper pattern. Their avowed intention was simply to normalise Aids and to remind us that many people live with Aids, continuing with ordinary routines and domestic lives.


Object details

Object type
Materials and techniques
Brief description
General Idea (Canadian artists' collective: Jorg Zontal, Felix Partz, A.A.Bronson) AIDS wallpaper, 1989.
Dimensions
  • Length: 1598.5cm
  • Width: 68.4cm
Summary
In recent years artists have adopted wallpaper for installations, public art projects, and sometimes also to carry political messages. The Canadian artists' collective General Idea designed a wallpaper based on Robert Indiana's famous 'Love' screenprint from 1967, but replaced the letters L.O.V.E. with A.I.D.S. They used this logo to promote Aids awareness in public places and they printed it on carrier bags and posters as well as wallpaper. It has been exhibited in many museums and galleries - including the V&A exhibition 'Graphic Responses to Aids' in 1996. The image gives us an apt metaphor for the action of the HIV virus itself - it is as if the Love motif has been 'infected' and has mutated from something benign to something dangerous; like the cells invaded by HIV it has kept its form but changed its nature. And by repeating the motif in a repeating wallpaper pattern we might see it as imitating the replication of the HIV virus in the host cells. But General Idea also intended something more positive when they reproduced this stark acronym as a wallpaper pattern. Their avowed intention was simply to normalise Aids and to remind us that many people live with Aids, continuing with ordinary routines and domestic lives.
Other number
Collection
Accession number
E.419-1998

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
Download as: JSON