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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
Screenprinted wallpaper
Brief description
General Idea (Canadian artists' collective: Jorg Zontal, Felix Partz, A.A.Bronson) AIDS wallpaper, 1989.
Physical description
Length of wallpaper, rolled
Dimensions
  • Length: 1500cm
  • 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.419A-1998

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Record createdSeptember 19, 2024
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