Julie Verhoeven

Inspired by French 18th century Toile de Jouy wallpaper, creative director Peter Saville commissioned illustrator Julie Verhoeven to create ‘wallpaper for the computer’. Saville supplied Verhoeven with reference imagery of Japanese rope suspension bondage to introduce an element of erotic danger; a counterbalance to the delicate detail of the historical textile source. Verhoeven produced a sequence of virtuoso, linear vignettes growing increasingly expressive in execution. The interactive sequence can be seen in the exhibition, a labyrinthine route through the drawings.

This commission is interesting in that is was designed specifically for computer, a sign of our postmodern digital age. This work links directly to Baudrillards theories of loss of reality in society and how as a society we have become subsumed by layers of simulacra.

This is something I have mindful of throughout the unit.