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Object Timeline

2001

  • Work on this object began.

2002

  • We acquired this object.

2006

2012

2025

  • You found it!

Sidewall, Clearing Fields

This is a sidewall. It was designed by Francesco Simeti. It is dated 2001 and we acquired it in 2002. Its medium is digitally printed. It is a part of the Wallcoverings department.

Francesco Simeti’s Clearing Fields is deceptively soothing. Its soft colors and framework of trees and pasture are juxtaposed with images of soldiers at military checkpoints and engaged in mine sweeping. Clearing Fields was commissioned by the museum in 2001 for the Rooms with a View: Landscape and Wallpaper exhibition and hung in the cafe for the duration of the exhibit.
Simeti works entirely on the computer using scanned images from newspapers and magazines, which he then implants into repeating formulas. He is interested in the way that imagery from the news becomes part of the background of our lives, similar to the way that wallpaper is a background for our rooms. Clearing Fields worked as a soothing installation, and also serves as an evocative socio-political commentary. The paper proposed for acquisition would join other work by Simeti already in the museum’s collection.

This object was donated by Francesco Simeti. It is credited Gift of Francesco Simeti.

  • Sickle Blade (Japan)
  • iron.
  • Collected by Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1853-54, Department of....
  • 15.2012.39
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Its dimensions are

Overall: 171 x 60.5 cm (5 ft. 7 5/16 in. x 23 13/16 in.)

Cite this object as

Sidewall, Clearing Fields; Designed by Francesco Simeti (Italian, b. 1968); USA; digitally printed; Overall: 171 x 60.5 cm (5 ft. 7 5/16 in. x 23 13/16 in.); Gift of Francesco Simeti; 2002-24-1

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18696215/ |title=Sidewall, Clearing Fields |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=22 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>