Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
By: Frances Lord
Frances Lord profiles Linda Florence, who creates wallpapers, flooring surfaces and interior textiles for domestic and commercial interiors, as well as temporary installations in transient materials.
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Linda Florence, ‘Scratch card wallpaper’, 2006.
London printworks.
Linda Florence creates wallpapers, flooring surfaces and interior textiles for domestic and commercial interiors. The other strand of her work is “installations which record the metamorphosis of ornament using sugar, rust, iron fillings or biscuits.
Her printing technique incorporates a mixture of traditional and new technologies including silk screen print, laser etching and flocking. She is interested in layering patterns and colour and prints on a whole range of unconventional materials and unusual surfaces, including fabric, skateboards, woodchip, slate, veneer and fur, “always searching for new printable materials.”
Many works involve active participation, creating an interaction between the work and the user.
Florence has a fascination with “pattern, paint and the 1980s”, and for her solo show ‘Monsters in Paradise; Robots in Disguise’ exhibition at Craft Central, London in 2007, she blended diverse sources such as traditional flocked floral wallpaper motifs with 80s computer graphics.
In terms of design ideas she says “I’m a bit of magpie – I find inspiration everywhere and confess to trawling through skips to unearth unusual materials. I’m definitely attracted to the idea that beauty can be created from rubbish.”
Florence graduated from the Printed Textiles course at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2003, before going onto the Design for Textile Futures MA at Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London, graduating in 2005. The college’s policy of taking on students from different backgrounds such as animation, architecture and illustration provided a fertile and creative environment in which to study.
For her MA show Florence showed a series of works that she would subsequently develop in a variety of contexts and locations for both private and public clients, and for which she has gained a considerable reputation. These included a book, a video, wallpaper and flooring which was screen printed on slate. With the flooring the public was encouraged to walk on the installation in so doing wearing away the surface to reveal another design beneath.
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Linda Florence, ‘Scramble doodle wall’, 2007.
Before graduating Florence was fortunate to be selected by curators Lauren Parker and Hugh Aldersey-Williams, who happened to visit the college, for the ‘Touch Me’ exhibition at the V&A Museum. For ‘Touch Me’ Florence designed Morphic Damask, a hand printed flocked wallpaper with leather decoupage, which covered both wall and floor, challenging assumptions of where the floor might begin and the wall end. With this installation the public were invited to walk over the flocked surface to reveal the new design beneath. She was also commissioned to create a sugar floor culminating in a sugar dance outside the Museum. The timing of ‘Touch Me’, which opened before Florence’s MA show, provided an amazing opportunity to showcase her work.
Press coverage in publications including Blueprint, Selvedge, Crafts Magazine, Financial Times, Grand Designs Magazine and The Observer also helped raise profile at this relatively early stage in her career.
Another opportune meeting while at college was with the fashion designer and retailer Ted Baker who visited her MA show and commissioned Florence to create wallpaper design for his Texas shop and a laser-cut-metal design for the shop walls and façade in Orange County, California. For this Florence created a large-scale plant-eating image, which wraps around the interior and exterior of the building. The working relationship has continued and she has designed wallpapers and other interior elements for Ted Baker shops in Selfridges, London and Sheffield, and rose wallpaper for the walls and ceilings of mirrored changing rooms in the Dubai shop.
Florence has been commissioned by other retailers including ‘Scin Studio’ where she created a rub-away floor printing onto the slate studio floor, and another rub-away shop floor for ‘Beyond the Valley’ in London.
After leaving Central St Martins Florence researched group studios, wishing to move into a creative environment with other artists offering a network of different skills. Cockpit studio’s start up package, offering training and mentoring, was attractive, as was the supportive environment and creative mix.
She moved into Cockpit in Deptford in 2006. Since then she has worked with furniture maker Matt Nicholls who made the screen for her magnetic wallpaper work shown at Designers Block, London, in 2007. A guitar maker, also based at Cockpit, made the screen which formed the base for a recent commission: a folding printed decoupage screen intended for a couple’s first home which folds into a box. This piece was commissioned by design historian Caroline Roux for Swarovski.
Conscious of the need to generate a regular income, Florence applied for a part-time job as Workshop Manager at London Printworks Trust in Brixton in 2006 where she still works two days a week. London Printworks, with their print room facilities, exhibitions, courses and professional development programme, provide good networking opportunities, as well as the use of equipment. Florence describes her role there as an opportunity to be both “manager and client”.
The sugar floors and dances have caught the imagination of a wide range of clients; Florence’s interest “in creating a visual record of the passing of time” fits well with current trends in commissioning. For ‘Departure – New Explorations in Print’, a group show with five other artists in September 2006, she was commissioned to make a sugar floor outside in the courtyard of London Printworks in Brixton, the dance for which was recorded on CCTV camera, and shown during the London Design Festival. An installation followed at London Printworks gallery with a scratch card wallpaper installation. In April 2008 this exhibition toured to the Hub gallery in Sleaford.
The sugar dance involves precision and working with assistants, often fine art/textile/design students. The inspiration for the tea dances originates from Florence’s Scottish background. She was taken dancing by her grandfather and recalls the sugary cakes and icing sugar designs as well as the tracking, weaving, waltzing, and circular movements created over the surface of the dance floor.
For art transporter in Berlin, part of their summer show in June 2007, Florence created a sugar floor in the streets and a ‘magnetic drawing’ onto a wall. When the white wall – with added grey flocked pattern – was drawn on with a magnetic pen, more pattern was added; the extra pattern made of iron filings attracted by the pen.
In January 2008 she was invited back to the V&A to create a sugar dance for a ‘Friday Late at the V&A’ event to coincide with the ‘Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft’ exhibition. And, in November 2007, through a London Printworks scheme, she was able to spend some time in Lithuania researching traditional weaving techniques and recreating them in a sugar installation. In return two Lithuanian artists spent time in the UK as part of the cultural exchange.
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Linda Florence, ‘Morphic Damask and Diamond Rose wallpaper’, 2006.
Canary Wharf.
Designing bespoke wallpaper for private homes and clients is another aspect of Florence’s work, and one she has become well known for. This often involves discussion of a client’s personal history and a considerable financial investment from the client. Florence views wallpaper “as an alternative to artwork” and functioning on a similar level.
More common with the public works, one of the private commissions was for wallpaper covering walls and floor; a second design gradually revealed over a period of time through wear. For private clients the work is sometimes mounted onto a detachable wall which can be removed when the owners move on.
In March 2008 Florence ‘moved the studio’ to Munich for one week to take part in Exempla International Trade Fair ‘Living Workshops’ in Munich. She described this as “an amazing experience and enjoyed the direct contact with the public”.
Screen printing wallpaper onto a seven metre print table provided an opportunity to get feedback from the public, while simultaneously demonstrating the complex process of designing and making hand printed wallpaper: the printing, drying and colouring process which involves matching inks, and ensuring adequate supplies of individually coloured inks.
Another aspect of Florence’s work is illustration, her training in surface design readily transferable to book design. In 2006 she was asked to create a design for wrapping paper to go around the limited edition The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters published by Penguin; and she has also designed book covers for Random House.
For Florence the challenges of being an artist are “learning as you go along”, working on “bigger and bigger pieces”, “learning to work with others”, “subcontracting” and “being honest about options and costs”.
Florence regards creating the space for experimentation with materials and techniques as being crucial and the creative driver for her work. She says she is “process-driven” and regards making time and space and budgeting for “creating and playing” as essential to the development of new ideas. Part-time teaching at Central St Martins helps fund this.
Frances Lord is a consultant and curator based in East Sussex specialising in public art and commissioning. Her background is in the crafts and she worked at the Crafts Council from 1984 – 1994. She co-curated ‘Jewellery is Life’ and ‘Prickings’ for Fabrica, the contemporary visual arts gallery in Brighton.
Frances now works with a range of individuals and organisations including local authorities, environmental agencies, museums and galleries initiating, developing and managing projects. Frances runs seminars on ‘Negotiating Public Art Commissions’ and mentors visual and applied artists wishing to gain experience and develop their practice in public art.
She is Public Art Advisor to West Sussex County Council, an Associate for Artpoint and a Commissions Advisor for Axis. In April 2008 she was invited to lecture on public art at the Meiji University, Tokyo as part of their ‘Foreign Scholar Invitation Programme’.
First published: a-n.co.uk June 2008
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