Flowers Of Earthly Delights I & II

Two erotic wallpapers, featured in the exhibitions ‘Surreal Women’ in 2010 (Flowers Of Earthly Delights I) and ‘Anatomy’ in 2011 (Flowers of Earthly Delights II) in the Cob Gallery in London.

The erotic content is subtly hidden in the design and not supposed to be its main focus. The pattern acknowledges the ornamental potential of genitals and their resemblance to certain flowers and fruits, and as such temporarily liberates these body parts from their sexual purposes. ‘Flowers of Earthly Delights’ I &II aim to usher in a  somewhat utopian ‘post-sexualised’ world, where all types of genitals can be admired as a beautiful shape of nature, allowed to form a part of an unobtrusive decorative backdrop.

I chose the medium of wallpaper because it exists to be ignored as visual background noise. Within this destiny lies a possibility to spread messages which may be picked up on a subconscious level only, leading to a slow change in attitudes without provoking violent feelings of rejection. Displaying it is a very gentle subversive act.

Flowers of Earthly Delights I:

Conceived as a decorative backdrop with a rather conservative appearance. Beyond the aim to create a perfectly pleasant wallpaper design with a nostalgic feel lies another idea to create a perfectly innocent display of much neglected beauty in female anatomy.

Female genitalia are indeed trapped in a very bipolar world – either covered up and not talked about, or crudely displayed in pornography (where the more common and beautifully ornamental type seems to lose out to the ‘teenage’ stereotype).

But a wallpaper has no intention to reveal anything to the persons in its presence, unless they have a strong visual curiosity and properly scrutinise its content. Even so, without certain anatomical knowledge, it is just another pretty floral wallpaper which looks rather uncontemporary.

Flowers of Earthly Delights II:

Developed with the ambition to match the beauty and complexity of the centuries old damask designs, many of which are still in use today. Its feel is lush and tropical, with various flowers and other shapes of nature mixed among the foliage (contains stylised imagery of plants, fruits, flowers, male and female genitalia).

Both patterns are in no part a copy from historic sources. The damask is available as a flexographic printed wallpaper on the shop page.