Some of you may remember my Aunty Hilary who sadly passed away two years ago and whom I dearly miss.

When I was asked if there was anything of hers that I should like to keep to remember her by, I asked if I might please have the china that she served tea from; I wanted the tea cups because they are to me representative of Hilary’s legendary hostessing skills and generosity, and her wonderful ability to bring a sense of specialness and occasion to the everyday.

I remember the sounds of drinking tea in Hilary’s quiet house, hearing the gentle ticking of the clock, the birds outside, and the distant murmur of cars passing in the road below. There is a restive quality to my memories of Hilary’s domestic space, and I feel that visiting her provided a lovely reprieve for me in girlhood from the noisy chaos of my family home. Hilary was always a very thoughtful person, and she spoke and listened very attentively. Serving tea was for her a way I think of setting up a context for long, rich conversations with all the people that she loved. Very rarely would the television be on during Afternoon Tea at Hilary’s; rather the tea would provide a sort of focus for being together and sharing confidences, news, worries, thoughts, feelings, fears and hopes.

It was magic tea.

The china in which it was served was dainty, with distinctive, clinking sounds. With no television on, no radio, and the very quiet nature of her situation in Gravesend, Kent, the sounds of the little cups being replaced in saucers and of family members breathing, speaking and laughing are what I remember best. Whenever I used Hilary’s china I think of all the tea she has served in it, and of all the love – and listening – that went with that.

BADDA 4855 – image © MoDA and used with their kind permission

Several people interviewed for the Sonic Wallpaper project commented that BADDA 4855 made them think of a sort of parlour or place where people would drink tea. I thought immediately of Hilary’s China, and realised that what Colleen had said about the room in which this paper might hang being big and full of light with big sofas and tea had made me think immediately of Aunty Hilary’s house.

I actually can’t remember what wallpaper Hilary had in her house – what I do remember is the embroidered cushions, the profusion of framed paintings on the wall, and the lovely smell of watercolour paints and lavender soap. However I felt that perhaps I would not be alone in having strong memories associated with proper cups and saucers and a sense of occasion and formality surrounding Afternoon Tea.

Drinking tea today for me is normally accomplished by slurping hastily out of a big, indelicate mug sat at my noisy, whirring computer, my hands yammering away like demented elephants on my keyboard keys, and in solitude. Like the wallpaper – which I would expect to see in a house decorated some time ago – the sounds of thin porcelain chinaware clinking carefully in a quiet living room feel like they belong to an earlier age. The china and tea-making sounds I used for the Sonic Wallpaper piece accompanying BADDA 4855 are a consciously nostalgic use of sound designed to evoke a rosy-eyed vision of something in the past. If this use of sound has been successful, then the delicate clinking of china cups will remind listeners generally of a time when more people used proper cups and saucers and treated tea-drinking as a formal and important social occasion.

I like to hope that Hilary would like the idea that her Afternoon Teas have made it into one of my art projects, and in writing this I realise I need to introduce Aunty Hilary’s approach to tea more fulsomely into my life.

I have one copy of the Sonic Wallpapers book to give to someone who would like to have a domestic listening experience for themselves! The book has all 18 wallpaper designs from the MoDA collection used in this project, and a CD in the back which contains all the soundpieces. There are introductions both by myself and Zoe Hendon who is the curator of MoDA, and notes on what people said, and what sounds were recorded, for each wallpaper included in the project.

Sonic Wallpapers book

Sonic Wallpapers CD

To win a copy of the book, you just need to leave a comment here about a wallpaper that you remember from your life, and one sound you recall from the room where that wallpaper was. If you cannot think of a wallpaper design and a sound, you could also leave one thought/response you have to this project. On 24th December, I will draw a number at random and post out a copy of the book to the winner!