"namban" wallpaper by DeGournay & Oitoemponto
design of the hand-made wallpaper called Namban - September 2017
- wallpaper made and sold by de Gournay : https://degournay.com
- created in collaboration with the designers Oitoemponto : http://oitoemponto.com
- shown above during the exhibition AD intérieurs 2017 : http://www.admagazine.fr
- photos taken by Jérôme Galland : https://www.jeromegalland.fr
Within de Gournay, Cécile Gay has been fully involved in the creation of his wallpaper, designed for Oitoemponto. She managed the first iconographical researches, mainly draw from the Art Deco period. THen, in permanent touch with the designers Artur Miranda and Jacques Porto, founders of the Oitoemponto agency, she has created the first sketches of the design composition and the first tries of teh textuer and painting style, including samples of the color antiquing. She was also giving the detailled instructions to the de Gournay workshop located in China, under the approving gaze of Jemma Cave, the artistic director of de Gournay. The whole porducts from this company are fully hand made. Cécile Gay was managing the project until the first installation of this design, for AD interieurs exhibition in September 2017.
Namban has been also developped for a screen designed by Oitoemponto and exhibited in de Gournay Paris showroom, in the same time.
Finally, this design has been permanently installed on the walls of the de GOurnay showroom - 15 rue des Saints-pères 75006 Paris. In november 2017, it has wined the Elle Decoration China Design Award for the best wallpaper of the year.
Titled ‘Namban’, the wallpaper evokes the artwork of Imperial Japan. An abstract seascape, representing the country’s early commercial contact with Europeans (notably the seafaring Portuguese), is exquisitely illustrated in a 3-dimensional gold leaf pattern which is then tarnished and burnished to create the impression of light breaking through the clouds onto the waves below. Looking to also capture the feel of the 1920s and 30s the design also references the work of Jean Dunand with its mesmerising interplay of swirling coils and graphic lines. The result is something truly original.
A flock of soaring Cranes, meanwhile, spans the composition: a specific motif not only seen frequently in the Art Deco era but also representative of the ‘Barbarians of the South’: the term used by the 18th Century Japanese to describe the first outsiders arriving to their ports.(…)
Oitoemponto’s contemporary application of de Gournay’s artisanal expertise forms an inspiring contribution towards the prestigious occasion – an annual highlight for Paris’s decorating industry.
de Gournay - September 2017
