Linda Florence has produced an innovative idea which has been successful with collectors and high end companies. The design from the Scratchcard Collection, 2005, uses metallic foils, leathers and other exotic materials which create a floral wallpaper with an engaging quality. Consumers get to engage with a ‘scratchcard’ mimic with their wallpaper, scratching back the foil on the wallpaper to reveal colour and pattern underneath. Florence clashes historic revival by using the traditional motif with a contemporary and thought provoking idea.
For years wallpaper has served a purpose of decorative only, to hide cracks in walls and to smooth surfaces, this type of design demands the consumer to give the wallpaper attention and gives another dimension to wallpaper by allowing it to be interactive.
The gold and silver foil, give the consumer a sense of expensive and higher status much like how it has done for hundreds of years, which began in 17th Century Chinese wallpaper designs. Gold in wallpaper has for a long time been a status of empowerment, but Florence’s re-take is much more a fashion thing, there is a great sense of parody in her work.
Linda Florence is inspired to re-create the 17th century belief of status and empowerment through wallpaper, her title for one of the Scratchcard collection ‘Morphic Damask’ hints at this, ‘Damask’ is a long time used wallpaper technique for flocking and just the very means of the gold motifs and flowery indicate this, as well as relating a scratchcard to her work. In today’s society we focus a lot on get rich quick schemes, I think juxtapostioning the two and in a parody way is her thought behind her work.
With programmes such as ‘Changing Rooms’ and ‘Property Ladder’ the econminy are very much in the moment of DIY, this sort of DIY, reveal the pattern yourself would be very appealing to the market at the moment.
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