here - UpDown Gallery

TONY ROCHE
MEMORY: PATTERNS OF GILT
12th July – 9th August
UpDown Gallery is pleased to announce it’s first show of work by wallpaper designer Tony Roche. By far the most ‘off the wall’ show that
UpDown has put on by far.
'Whatever you have in your rooms think first of the walls for they are that which makes your house and home, and if you do not make some
sacrifices in their favour you will find your chambers have a kind of makeshift, lodging-house look about them…' – William Morris
To most wallpaper is a backdrop to a family home, something that is more interesting than magnolia paint but not so dominant that it
disturbs the relaxing space you retire to after a hard days work.
Tony Roche’s work is anything but bland and inconspicuous. He describes himself as an artist and
designer who expresses his creative ideas through the process of making wallpaper, but this in no
ordinary wallpaper. 3D sculpted shapes and forms jut out from the wall; resin pebbles encapsulate
images of far off places and monkey’s sip from cocktail glasses.
Tony Roche’s wallpapers are artworks of the finest kind, with undulating patterns interlinking,
creating wave like motions taking the eye on a journey across the surface, with intermittent pools to
dip into and explore. Roche’s main themes are Memory and Light, bringing together objects from the
past and present incorporating patterns and using materials that create magical ethereal objects.
Light comes from every angle, from behind making the work glow, from inside, seeping from the sides
or reflecting off the surface, creating a work that continuously changes.
His predilection for pattern were nurtured from an early age by his father who worked in the
decorating business, at a time when artex was the rage, stencilling became very fashionable to give
your room that stand out quality. Roche also spent many hours going through the archives at the
V&A, researching wallpaper and patterns from the early 1920s and 30s, recording them carefully
and morphing them together across the decades to create interesting and challenging new designs.
He still references these early notebooks and sketches and incorporates them with newer ideas.
Certain tunes, phrases; people, images and objects can instantly transport you straight back to a certain
period in time, sparking memories good and bad. This process has always fascinated Roche and it forms a
major part of his work. He remembers spending hours listening to his grandmother recount stories of her
youth embellishing the stories with photographs and trinkets. To this end Roche collects objects from his
past, old school bags, bus tickets and old family photos.
Architecture has also been instrumental in his work; he has travelled widely recording the great buildings
around the world. Collecting and fusing each countries unique inherited cultural patterns, the burnt hot
colours of India, the contemporary cutting edge architecture found in Spain and the gothic Victorian
structures of Ireland. Oscar Niemeyer, a Brazilian born architect, who’s buildings can be seen all round the
globe, stands out as one of Roche’s all-time favourites. Niemeyer’s buildings are instantly recognisable
with their seemingly impossible structures creating shards projecting right up to the clouds surrounded by
the most hypnotic swirls and curves. Instantly captivating, with interiors spaces casting the most celestial
of lights.
The exhibition at UpDown Gallery will allow the viewer to see wallpaper design at its most creative, it will
feature a number of new designs made for the exhibition that can be commissioned by the more traditional ‘roll’, individual panel pieces,
large scale wall installations, framed memories and 3D sculptures. Research photographs and series depicting the layering up process, a
true education into the world of design, will accompany it. Tony Roche’s work also included numerous private and film set commissions,
recent films include X-Men and Anna Karenina.
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UpDown Gallery will also host ‘An Artists Talk’ with Tony Roche on the 2 of August from 5-7pm. £10 per ticket and £5 concessions and
Collectors Club members. In addition to the exhibition UpDown Gallery will launch 2 new digital prints by Tony Roche in a limited edition
of 40. More details can be found on the gallery website www.updowngallery.co.uk
UpDown Gallery Satis House 11 Elms Avenue Ramsgate Kent CT11 9BW
01843 588181 [email protected] www.updowngallery.co.uk