Natalya Hughes, 'There Is Something Missing From Your Magic Realism'

Q: What is the punishment for having something missing from your magical realism?
A: One hundred years of solitude.

Shitty jokes aside, Natalya Hughes's new exhibition presents images in the form of fantastical, arcanely symbolic wallpapers. A lot of her previous work has referred to Japanese ukiyo-e prints, excising the human figures and reducing them to decorative components - fragments of pattern lost in a calligraphic swirl of kimonos. There is a connection, ukiyo-e prints were a way for the urban population of feudal Japan to adorn their homes with art the same way wallpaper offered a way for non-arisotcratic folk to decorate walls without the expense of huge-ass tapestries.

The works in this show draw on a diverse range of source material (both high and low of brow) - from found images to an Insane Clown Posse video clip. These are transformed into the kind of wallpaper that would not be recommended for patients of delicate psychological consititution: psychedelic, colourful, fractal forms (RIP Benoît Mandlebrot). The exhibition also features a text-based collaboration with Colin Treacher (a.k.a the man with the golden horns) and an animation made with Isobel Knowles.