Inspired by 19th century engravings of works by JMW Turner held in the University’s fine art collection, printmaker Emma Molony has created stunning hand-printed wallpaper, depicting scenes around Exeter. See it in the Queen's Building on the University's Streatham campus.
Commissioned by Arts and Culture, this strikingly beautiful wallpaper has been inspired by 19th century engravings of works by JMW Turner which are held in the University of Exeter's fine art collection.
It has been designed and created by Emma Molony, an artist printmaker who lives and works in Exeter and East Devon. Two hundred years after JMW Turner visited and sketched Exeter, Emma followed in his footsteps and drew scenes along the River Exe. She chose three of these views and another on Streatham Campus as the basis for the wallpaper design.
Printing copies of the original 19th century engravings onto transparent acetate films, she cut designs from these images, scratching into them, combining and overlapping them, arranging them to make four collages of the Exeter scenes, made entirely from the marks of the engravings. This collage design forms the darker layer of the screenprinted wallpaper.
For the citrus-coloured layer beneath, Emma used her own drawings of plants, trees and grasses following the style of the engravings as inspiration. She screenprinted both layers of the design onto painted lining paper in a repeat pattern.
I hope people will enjoy seeing marks created nearly 200 years ago by master-engravers, reprinted and interwoven with contemporary views of Exeter. I loved the exaggerated and romanticised rendering of Devon in the original engravings and how it can encourage us to consider our landscape in creative ways. I also hope the project also enables people to see the potential of printmaking and the endless possibilities it offers.
As part of the commission Emma ran a series of drypoint printmaking workshops with staff and students at the Streatham campus. Exploring mark making and landscape, the workshops offered participants the chance to create their own intaglio landscape prints using a very similar engraving technique to that Turner used himself. The results from both workshops were stunning and the workshops themselves provided staff and students with valuable time to step back, pause, and enjoy the immersive process of creative making.
This was such an exciting commission for me; seeing the engravings first-hand, printing with staff and students and the challenge of designing and printing large-scale artwork with different 21st century printmaking methods.
Emma has captured beautifully the essence of the 19th century engravings from our collections, yet she has brought them into the modern age with her contemporary design and use of colour. I encourage everyone to come and view the wallpaper installation, so that Emma’s creativity and skill as a printmaker can be fully appreciated.
Creating the wallpaper
Below Emma has shared with us parts of the creative process behind making the wallpaper.
This is the second wallpaper installation commissioned by Arts and Culture. The idea behind the installations is to give artists an opportunity to design and realise a wallpaper which connects with an aspect of the University of Exeter, be it the physical environment, our collections or our research, and give it a new perspective. And of course, each installation will be there for a year, for all to enjoy.
See the wallpaper installation during the academic year 2023-24, in the Queen's Building, Streatham Campus, outside the Senior Common Room.
University of Exeter
Room 153, Queen's Building
The Queen's Drive
Exeter EX4 4QH
