Note: These posts moved from this thread - Sim' I'm not really a big fan of painted murally style backgrounds, I find them a bit fake. I'd say A better exhibit backdrop would be fake rock, or naturalistic wood, or a block colour broken up by foliage etc. A mural just looks a bit tacky, and obviously means nothing to the animals.
yes there is a degree of truth in that - but over the years i have grown dead tired of "mock rock" and now pay out on it whenever possible! all of melbournes reptile house, as old as it is, still looks quite good because they shaped and coloured the rockwork in each exhbit to represent the species habitat. that said - i found it somewhat refreshing when i visited tarongas reptile house - because i liked that parts of the rockwork walls was absent and a painted "view" into the forest behind was a feature of many of the exhibits. in the end however we are not so much pro-mural as we are all anti green painted brick..
Exactly! I've seen some horrendus painted backdrops over the years, and I've also seen some excellent ones. There are a number of recently-painted backdrops in the reptile house at London, done by one of the reptile keepers. They are very simple, but very effective, in fact, I baulked at all the bright green backgrounds, but found myself enjoying the exhibits and the animals in the ones that had "mural" backgrounds, and it wasn't until I was asked if I liked the effect, that I even noticed the background. To me,that's the sign of a good background - one that blends in perfectly with the rest of the exhibit.
yeah spot on... um, if anyone knows any exhibits that need any murals - i know a really talented artist......
i was always impressed by the frog exhibits in london zoos reptile house which were actually backe dby----greens plastic or perspex. however, you cant see it because of all the plants (i only knew it was there when all the plants were taken out for remodeling). wherever possible, plants make the best backdrop. in terms of large scale exhibits, no matter if the budget is huge or miniscule, if i had to make a decision in exhibit design between say, a chain link fenc eor artificial rock wall id opt for the fence, simply because its cheaper, the animals can see through it, the money saved on concrete and oxide can be spent on landscaping, and, if were going to be picky, the fake-rock conglomerations in most zoo exhibits are no more natural looking than a fence
