Mural brings out the best in wallpaper - July 2015

Former WHS student TINEKE Paurini (left) and Teresa Leef with their entry in this year's mural competition.

Each year since 2013, Aspiring Walls, formerly Vision Wallcoverings, has put out the challenge to its retail outlets to produce an artwork, a mural of imagination, flair and originality to adorn the shop wall.

There is just one stipulation: the mural must be made completely of wallpaper.

Last year Tineke Paurini and Teresa Leef of Resene Colorshop Wanganui put showbiz on the wall with images of Michael Jackson and Audrey Hepburn created entirely from wallcoverings, picking up first prize in the competition and earning a handsome trophy.

"It was a sad day when we had to take that mural down," says Teresa.

This year the artists have excelled themselves with a work entitled Hei tiki, featuring a complex, multi-coloured tiki, a fantail, a pohutukawa tree and decorative panels.
In front, in 3D, is a set of poi on a woven mat, bringing it into the realms of installation art. Because, despite being made of wallpaper, it's art, not décor.

Store manager Karen McDonald says the competition sparks interest in the product but the mural adds a lot to the look of the store.

Tineke, who has an art degree, says they first found some images they thought would look good made out of wallpaper. "We first did the tiki, then decided we wanted to do the fantail and things just flowed from there, like the background with the panels and the tree. We started in February and finished last week, but it was off and on, in between serving customers and working in the shop."

Incorporated into the exhibit is last year's trophy in a theatrical surround, also made of wallpaper.

Photographs of the mural are entered in the competition and the work stays in place until it's time for another display, says Tineke.

The Community Arts Centre would like to have an exhibition of the mural, or those parts which are able to be moved.