Hadrian Garrard, Director of the William Morris Gallery in London and curator of ‘Morris Mania’ will speak to us about the Gallery’s recent exhibition.
William Morris (1834-96) has gone viral. Today, we find his infinitely-reproduced botanical patterns on shower curtains, phone cases, on film and TV, and in all corners of our homes, dentist waiting rooms and shopping centres. Over 125 years since his death, Morris’s work continues to grow in popularity. His patterns are now affordable, well-loved and available to people across the globe, something he failed to achieve in his lifetime. However, this has been achieved in the context of mass- production, computer-generated design, global capitalism and environmental crisis. Morris Mania considers the ongoing impact of Britain’s most iconic designer in our increasingly cluttered and commodified world.
Objects from the William Morris Gallery and private and public international collections include a ‘Rose’ patterned seat from the 1980s British Nuclear Submarine Fleet, ‘Willow’ pattern Nike trainers, and Loewe fashion inspired by Morris’s designs. The recent exhibition also featured Morris-patterned objects donated by the public. Morris-patterned donations to date include chopsticks, a waving cat from Japan, hand-embroidered wedding jackets, Wellington boots and an array of mugs and biscuit tins.
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