Villa Design Group

Villa Design Group is Than Hussein Clark (b. 1981, Exeter, New Hampshire, USA), James Connick (b. 1989, UK) and William Joys (b. 1989, UK) and was formed in 2011 at Goldsmiths College of Art. Working within the language of interior design, architecture and theatre, their work encompasses installation, sculpture and performance. They explore the possibilities of how the queer may exist in the present. 

Flyposted throughout the city during Liverpool Biennial 2016, Villa Design Group’s promotional images are scenographic sketches from a yet to be realised film adaptation of interior designer Jean Royere’s 1976 memoir Arab Living and Loving as seen by a French Interior Decorator. Each image represents a different chapter from Royere’s travels across the Middle East in the 1950s, and the many clients he encountered. 

Their performances have been shown at LISTE Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland (2015); Edinburgh Arts Festival, Edinburgh, UK (2014); and Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria (2013). Exhibitions have been held in venues such as The Bernard Natan centre of the arts at MUMOK, Vienna, Austria (2015); Mathew Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2014); and Beton Galerie, Hamburg, Germany (2013). Publications include Repertory 2011-2014 published by Montez Press. Forthcoming shows include the MIT List Visual Arts Centre, Cambridge, USA in Spring 2016 and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany in Summer 2016.

Villa Design Group at Liverpool Biennial 2016

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Artwork for Film Poster, (A desert for love), 2014, Artwork for Film Poster, (Days in Iraq and Arabian nights), 2014, Artwork for Film Poster, (The Palace at Riyadh, A Luxurious Prison), 2014, Artwork for Film Poster, (The Best Thing Syria Has Done Is Lebanon), 2014, Artwork for Film Poster, (As Always, When Europeans Are Going Somewhere There Is A Certain Commotion), 2014
Digital print, fly-posters
Flyposted throughout the city