Wallpapered | Brigitte Zieger

About

Millennium Court Arts Centre is pleased to present Wallpapered, an exhibition of large-scale animated film by German artist Brigitte Zieger. Zieger's ‘wallpapers' may initially appear ideal and harmonious but this perception disintegrates upon closer examination — explosive charges lurk everywhere. Here kitsch, bucolic scenes become dangerously populated by threatening objects or people who weave in and out of the scenery. In one animation, Bewildered, the viewer is plunged into the heart of an infinite animated forest, inspired by pastoral wallpaper motifs from the European Colonial Period. In a world unnervingly devoid of humans the only sign of their presence in this indifferent landscape are the tattered protest banners and abandoned placards of bygone demonstrations. Is it a symbol of a lost paradise or a sign of things to come? The artist bases her works on world events and their visual presentation in the media. Collecting motifs and images online or from television and press photographs from print media she incorporates these sources into her diverse, exquisitely animated ‘wallpapers' and ‘tapestries'. Her chosen aesthetic is derived from Toile de Jouy wallpaper decoration, itself once a platform for presenting the political ideas and contemporary mores of 18th century life. Bourgeois wallpaper as an historical object also harks back to the age of industrialisation and the revolutionary changes which accompanied it; mass production techniques, urbanisation, and of course new forms of exploitation through work. The juxtaposition of familiar domestic décor and potentially violent action or destruction presents a perfect metaphor for the contemporary consumption of news in the home, a disturbing and emotive background to daily life. Many threads and commentaries are interlaced and move though Zieger's work, which seeks in part to question what exactly we put in our homes, on our walls and what realities these help to soften and mask. About the Artist: Brigitte Zieger is a Paris-based German artist whose work embraces a range of media. She has shown internationally both in solo and group exhibitions, including Prop Fiction, White Columns New York (1997), Abracadabra, Tate Gallery London (1999) Fabulations et Vagabondages, Contemporary Art Centre Annemasse (2005) Bang! Bang! at CCA Kunsthalle Andratx Mallorca (2011), and Tirs Reloaded/Pacific Standard Time, Here is Elsewhere Gallery Los Angeles (2012). Recent Solo Shows include Women are Different from Men, Odile Ouizeman Gallery Paris (2011), Counter-Memories at Weigand Gallery Berlin (2012) and with Kara Walker at l'Aà ®tre St.Maclou Rouen (2010). http://www.brigittezieger.com/