This installation, The Room Of Sublime Wallpaper (II), by Ellen Harvey was shown by Stephan Stayanov Gallery at the Nada Art Fair in Miami, this past week. Ellen was born in the United Kingdom and she currently lives and works in Brooklyn. She has exhibited extensively in the U.S. and internationally and she was included in the Whitney Biennial in 2008. I have always loved Ellen's work, particularly The New York Beautification Project, which has been documented in a book published by Gregory Miller & Co. in 2005. This installation is exceptional, it was one of the most innovative, exciting and thoughtful pieces that I saw last week ..... and I am thrilled to "accessorate" about it!!!.
"Looking into the room, the viewer sees a room wallpapered in newspaper containing a salon-style hanging of glowing landscape paintings that seem to move as the viewer approaches them. It is only upon entering the room that it becomes apparent that the "paintings" are in fact angled mirrors reflecting the hidden painted walls of the room and the illusion is shattered by the intrusion of the viewer's reflection. The most luxurious (hand-painted) and the poorest (newspaper) forms of wall paper are juxtaposed much as the escapist fantasy of art's reach for the sublime is disrupted by the alternately dire and ridiculous "news" of out time."
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