This wallpaper was designed by the German artist/photographer Thomas Demand especially for the installation of his work at the Serpentine Gallery (6 June - 20 August 2006). The wallpaper pattern is a trompe l'oeil design of dense ivy leaves, and is derived from the ivy depicted in his photographic work Klause 2 / Tavern 2, 2006. There is a second layer of illusion involved because the photograph itself is of a constructed scene (as are all Demand's photographs) in which all the elements depicted, including the ivy, are made of card or paper. The wallpaper pattern itself is not directly photographic - it has been manipulated to the point of near-abstraction, but comes into focus when viewed from short distance away. It was produced in four different colourways (Sunny, Normal, Night and Pale), each of which was hung in a different room in the gallery, creating a specific ambience related directly to the natural light levels in each space.

In designing and installing wallpaper for this exhibition, Demand was deliberately emphasising the domestic scale of the Serpentine Gallery, and referencing its park setting. The ivy pattern also plays with ideas of inside/outside, and it worked to create an atmosphere that was both domestic and claustrophobic - in keeping with the mood of some of the photographs displayed in the gallery. This idea of foliage-patterned wallpaper draws heavily on historic precedents - notably William Morris - but also on the kind of mid-19th century French scenic wallpapers which created a sense of enclosure through non-repeating designs representing lushly naturalistic flowers and foliage.