Exhibition: The Permeability of Certain Matters has messages about child labour

THE PERMEABILITY OF CERTAIN MATTERS
Spring Workshop

Hypnotic wallpaper lines the huge gallery space, the pinkish pattern grabbing the eye's gaze, interrupted sporadically by framed pictures of flowers. It's all very serene and country estate. But serious messages exist beneath "The Permeability of Certain Matters" exhibition at the Spring Workshop in Aberdeen, about mass production and the history of child labour.

The show, a collaboration between Cypriot Christodoulos Panayiotou and German-born Philip Wiegard, sets Panayiotou's photographic works against the backdrop of Wiegard's handcrafted wallpaper called "Festoons."

"The print used on the wallpaper is a pattern inspired by a German design from the 1770s. It's a pattern that used an artisanal technique that benefits from the dexterity of children's small fingers," says Wiegard. But what the viewer does not get to see are the behind the scenes "making of" of the wallpaper, a production process that took 11 days and involved 32 tiny-fingered children recruited from across Hong Kong.

Alluding to different labour practices of the pre-industrial and industrial age, Wiegard choreographed a workflow that optimised the labour intensive creation of large quantities of wallpaper.