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 |
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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 |
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Record created | June 30, 2009 |
Record URL |
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