Artist Epoh Beech spoke to FAD Magazine contributor, writer and curator Lee Sharrock about her upcoming solo exhibition ‘The Pegasus Papers’, which runs opens on 1st April until 6th April at Sydney Mews Gallery in London.
Epoh Beech: The Pegasus Papers will feature bespoke wallpaper, drawings and animated drawings. ‘The Pegasus Papers’ series comprises four meticulously crafted designs—Pegasus in Africa, The Carousel and The Moon, Hermes’s River Journey, and The Theatre and The Thames—each born from a collection of highly detailed pen-and-ink drawings. The new hand-drawn wallpaper designs are rooted in Beech’s award-winning hand-drawn animations ‘The Masque of Blackness’ (2018) and ‘The Marriage of The Thames and The Rhine’ (2010). ‘The Masque of Blackness’ (2018) lit up London’s South Bank in 2018, when it was monumentally projected on the National Theatre Fly tower as part of The Thames Festival. ‘The Masque of Blackness’ (2018) was featured in many international film festivals as well as outdoor projections in Kleve in Northern Germany by the Rhine, and at the Museum Schloss Moyland in Northern Germany.
Beech’s animated short films inspired the motifs and characters seen in her wallpaper designs, including Pegasus the mythological horse and Hermes, the time-traveling grey seal. Beech reimagines these figures in still form, encouraging viewers to connect the imagery and bring it to life through their own interpretations.
‘The Pegasus Papers’ is curated by Lee Sharrock who spoke to Beech about the painstaking four-year process of creating wallpaper from animated drawings for the new exhibition, the influence of her training at Studio Simi in Florence, and how inspired she was by visits to the Toile de Jouy Museum near Paris and the V&A wallpaper archives in London.
How long did it take you to create the Wallpaper based on your drawings, and what did the process involve?
It took several years. I first started to think about wallpaper design in 2011 then I actually started in 2020, so about 4 years work. Artist Daniel Heath help show me how wallpapers repeat are structured and how to layout the designs.
In 2020 I started to imagine how the designs might look, I used cut outs of images from my animation “The Masque of Blackness Reimagined” I wanted the wallpapers to carry on the narrative of the animation. I used the images of Rivers, Pegasus, Carousels, Moonlight and Hermes (the time travelling grey seal). I kept a sketch book and left the ideas repeat themselves.
I wanted there to be a connection to the animation so there could be an obvious link to how we make images move in our imaginations. For example, in animation, it is a still image repeated 25 frames a second, with wallpaper the images are all repeated at the same time, over time we start to imagine them moving.
When I first started designing the wallpapers, it was very much a learning curve. The first design was all about Pegasus, I drew this in pen and ink, all on one sheet of paper 104cm x 104 cm. Which I later discovered that this was unnecessary, as it is much easier to join the images together for the repeat when they are drawn on separate pieces of paper.
The other 3 designs were all drawn on smaller pieces of paper, these also work as separate drawings, these drawings will be exhibited at my exhibition in April. I used a very fine pen so it simulated copper plate etching. Working about the movement of the images in relation to one another in the wallpaper repeat took a bit of time. I commissioned Surface Print, a wonderful wallpaper factory in Lancashire to helped me with the process of scanning and turning the repeat into a wallpaper design for digital printing. The wallpapers are digitally printed so there is huge scope for colourways.
Also, John Mark Ltd in Lancashire, who are now printing all my wallpapers digitally, were very helpful too. Both Surface Print and John Mark were extremely helpful and I learned a lot. Each of the 4 designs took about a year to design each. There are several stages to the process.
1.Firstly, the actual design has to be thought about in connection with the narrative of the animations and then drawn very carefully in pen on paper.
2. Secondly, the artwork is scanned and made into an ava file by a graphic art company
3.Thirdly, the wallpapers are turned into digital files for printing. And the wallpapers are printed to see if the tonal range is ok, then the wallpaper factory do a test day for the colurways.
There is huge scope here as digital printing is limitless in regards to colour. So choosing twenty colour ways for all the 4 designs seemed like a good way to limit the choices. The 4th and final design, ‘The Theatre and The Thames’, extends the narrative of the animation ’The Masque of Blackness’ and provides a scene that does not exist in the animation.
When you created ‘The Pegasus Papers’ wallpapers you were inspired by French narrative-style wallpapers, Chinoiserie-style wall paintings, the Bayeux Tapestry, ancient Chinese handscrolls and also the Toile de Jouy wallpaper that you had in your house as a child. Did you investigate any of the techniques used in Toile de Jouy wallpaper when you were making your wallpaper?
I visited the Toile de Jouy Museum (Musée de la Toile de Jouy) in Jouy-en-Josas near Paris and the V&A wallpaper archives in London back in 2011, to look at the original designs and the depth of tonal range the copper plate etching achieves. I also learnt that the narrative in the designs were incredibly important and that many of the wallpapers were both political and educational.
The repeat in the pattern was very important to the flow of the design and to the movement in the image that you experience as a viewer when you look at these wonderful creations.
I spent a lot of time looking at the designs and observing how they achieved a sense of distance and depth. I had a large piece of ‘Paul et Virginie’ (Pierre Frey Toile de Jouy) hanging on the wall of my studio for years. This design tells the story of Paul and Virgine, who both drown in a Romeo and Juliet style story set in Mauritius.
I observed the depth of mark making and the scale of images in relationship to each other, and how this made the scenes move and how an animation started to appear. The 18th Century Toile de Jouy wallpaper designs are so beautiful and the stories so clearly portrayed that I thought it would be interesting to connect narrative style wallpaper to hand drawn animation.
You studied as a fine artist at Studio Simi in Florence, Italy, Cheltenham Art School and Chelsea College of Art. Did your time in Florence have much influence on the work you make now?
The year I spent in Florence, in the 1980’s, at Studio Simi has shaped all I do now in my practice. It was a massive influence on my thinking. The wonderful frescos in the Florentine churches, the story telling in the designs and the joy of looking at the wonderful artworks in the city have stayed with me always.
Also, I was greatly influenced by the Neo Platonic philosophy, especially the letters of Marsilio Ficino in 15th Century Florence. His ideas and writing that great design, the images and music have the power to heal and bring a sense of equilibrium to our souls.I am interested in light, colour, narrative and movement of images. All these are found in hand drawn animation and narrative style wallpapers.
Your hand-drawn animation The Masque of Blackness (2018) was projected onto The National Theatre Flytower on London’s Southbank in September 2018 as part of The Thames Festival. How did it feel to see your film projected on the Southbank and was it a career highlight?
It was incredible to see my animation ‘The Masque of Blackness’ (2018) projected monumentally onto the National Theatre Fly Tower in 2018 as part of the Thames Festival. The opening night was particularly amazing, with live music performed by Esben Tjalve, who wrote the original score for the animation, he was a companied and his wonderful band.
There was a full moon and the location set right by the river on the South Bank really added to the power of the artwork. It was amazing to see the animated images on such an enormous scale. Even from viewed from Somerset House the images looked fantastically clear and powerful.
Yes, it was a career highlight, but there have been many; including the screening of ‘The Masque of Blackness’ (2018) at many international film festivals and the outdoor projections in Kleve in Northern Germany by the Rhine.
And also the screening of the animation at Museum Schloss Moyland in Northern Germany 2019 was a career highlight. I look forward to more outdoor screenings of the animations in the future. Maybe alongside The Pegasus Papers Wallpapers?
Recurring motifs and characters found in your wallpaper designs such as Pegasus and Hermes first appeared in your hand-drawn animations The Masque of Blackness (2018) and The Marriage of The Thames and The Rhine (2010). What was it that first attracted you to these mythological characters, and how did you use them as starting points for your drawings, animations and now the wallpaper?
Rivers have always held a very important link to the imagination for me. I had a very vivid dream a while ago now, of a grey seal going to the bottom of the sea to find where the Thames and the Rhine used to meet at Doggerland (between The Netherlands and East Anglia). The seal was wearing a camera around his neck. I called the seal Hermes, after the Greek God, as he can travel between worlds, like a psychopomp.
Hermes, represents to me, a link between the imagination, the world of dreams, and the natural world.Pegasus first appeared to me in 2006 by the banks of the river Rhine. To me he represents, wisdom and justice and a force for good in the world.
‘The Marriage of the Thames and The Rhine’, written by Francis Beaumont in 1613 and ‘The Masque of Blackness’ written by Ben Jonson in 1605, are both pieces of Jacobean literature written about rivers (The Thames, The Rhine and The Niger rivers)
We animate drawings and images, in many different ways. For example, The Bayeaux Tapestry and Ancient Chinese Scroll paintings are very long, continuous, works depicting a story. As we walk along the scroll looking at the artwork, gradually the images start to move in our own imaginations although they are actually still.
I am interested in the different ways we make drawings move in our own imaginations. Afer all, it’s all artifice. A still drawing, a single drawing, doesn’t actually move. A moving drawing moves for us at 25 frames a second, and a repeated drawing like we see in narrative wallpaper, moves when we look at it over time. We animate all of these over time, in different ways.
The Bayeaux Tapestry and Ancient Chinese Scroll paintings are long continuous works depicting a story, as we walk along looking at the artworks, the images start to move in our own imaginations, I’m exploring these different forms of drawing, to see how we animate in our own imaginations and for this I am using the same images that have been with me for over 20 years.
Pegasus, the mythological winged horse. Hermes, a time traveling grey seal. The rivers, carousels and moonlight are all there too. To me, repetition is really important to how I relate to images I love. That’s the magic!
Epoch Beech ‘The Pegasus Papers’ is at 11 Avenue Studios, Sydney Mews, London SW3 6HL from 1st to 6th April, 2025. More info info@epohbeech.co.uk
