New exhibition covers walls in chocolate paint

A world of pure imagination... chocolate art has come to life in Paisley

It may not look as magical as Willy Wonka's famous fictional factory, but this brand new artwork uses the same ingredient as the man himself - chocolate!

Displayed in an empty shop in Paisley, the artwork is made up of walls covered with paint created from melted chocolate.

It's been created by artist Anya Gallaccio and the piece is called 'Stroke', which has been installed in lots of different countries, encouraging people to get stuck in however they like.

"In Vienna it was intense, it was covered in fingermarks," says Anya. "In Japan, where I expected people to be more reserved, they licked the walls!"

Artist Anya Gallaccio says that her work is "definitely not a Willy Wonka type of chocolate room"

“What you can smell is intensely concentrated chocolate paint which has been layered onto all four walls,” Anya explains.

“To some people it will be delicious and to some people it will be revolting.

“A lot will depend on your relationship with chocolate. It’s definitely not a Willy Wonka type of chocolate room.”

The artwork was originally part of Jupiter Art Land, a sculpture park on the outskirts of Edinburgh, where it was a really popular exhibit.

The park's founder and director, Nicky Wilson, says that "all you could see was little hand and fingerprints where toddlers had tried to take off the chocolate!"

Sadly, the chocolate on the wall will slowly decay over time, with the exhibition ending on New Year's Eve, where the empty shop will become a cafe

The new location aims to bring many visitors to Paisley, and so an education studio has been set up opposite to the empty shop where the artwork is displayed.

Jenny and Luke are helping out with running the education programme and have lots of thoughts on how people might react to the chocolate flavoured walls.

Jenny says: "Maybe I won’t like chocolate by the end, but it will be interesting to see people’s reactions."

Luke thinks that "it may open people’s eyes to different types of art, show new ways of making it" and maybe even change visitors' understanding "of what art is and what it can do.”