Collection Online
Medium
wool
Measurements
525.0.0 × 435.0 cm irreg.
Place/s of Execution
London, England; India
Inscription
printed (vertically) in ink on reverse l.l.: ref/model rug number / BETHAN–pr02CUSTOM / HANDTUFTED RUG 23911 / Color dimensions (cm) / 433 x 500 / Designer atelier / – India / material Production Technique / 100% wool HANDTUFTED / fringes style quality (knots/sqm) / – handtufted / weight (kg) / 70 kg
Accession Number
2024.154
Department
Contemporary Design and Architecture
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with funds donated by Jo Horgan and MECCA Brands, 2024
© Bethan Laura Wood
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work

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.