Kaleidoscope-o-rama, carpet
2023
- Medium
- wool
- Measurements
- 525.0.0 × 435.0 cm irreg.
- Place/s of Execution
- London, England
- Department
- Contemporary Design and Architecture
- Credit Line
- Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with funds donated by Jo Horgan and MECCA Brands, 2024
© Bethan Laura Wood - Gallery location
- 18th & 19th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International - About this work
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Taking inspiration from works in the NGV Collection, Kaleidoscope-o-rama is informed by Bethan Laura Wood’s research into the interiors, furniture and objects that were the backdrop for conversation and knowledge exchange among women of the aristocracy in England during the Regency period of the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century.
Through Kaleidoscope-o-rama Wood reinterprets the colours, patterns, materials and forms found in Regency salons, to foreground the social phenomena of the period and draw out the continuing social values of equality and open access to education that were spearheaded by women at the time. By focusing on books, a fundamental medium for knowledge sharing, Wood invites audiences to think more deeply about how ideas are captured and shared, and to consider whose voices are being broadcast and what ideas and mediums hold intellectual authority.