It is thirty years since I arrived in the UK to take up an Overseas Study Grant from the Australia Council to study in the Tapestry Department of the Edinburgh College of Art, at that time the only exclusive course devoted to Tapestry weaving within a higher education institution in the world. The art of Tapestry was at its zenith in Scotland in 1980, fuelled by the incredible energy of Archie Brennan, director of the Dovecot Studios and renowned artist in his own right, who had brought the department into being and taken Tapestry, as an individual form of expression, to the world. The course was taught with enthusiastic vision by Maureen Hodge and Fiona Mathison who were also established artists and exhibiting practitioners. The experience opened my Antipodean eyes to the possibilities of the medium, the width and breadth of a lively and growing art form. In contrast to the exacting but necessary training I had received as a foundation weaver of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in 1976 this was “no holds barred” Tapestry - where experimentation was encouraged and the conventions of the craft acted merely as a support structure for the imagination. So now I embarked on a somewhat sentimental journey seeking out those arenas in which Tapestry is still alive to possibility.
My first encounter was at the West Dean Studio in Sussex, a short train and bus trip from London in the heart of the South Downs. Part of the West Dean College which is housed in a magnificent country estate, formerly the home of Edward James and administered through his foundation, the studio was set up in 1976 (obviously a very good year for Tapestry) to fulfil a commission of eight tapestries designed by Henry Moore. I was fortunate to see these exhibited at the V&A in 1980. This led to the establishment of the working studio which is now involved in another unique project - the re-weaving of the mediaeval Hunt of the Unicorn suite over a period of twelve years.
Past and present collide in this endeavour as contemporary artist weavers inhabit the skin of the mediaeval artisan and create a repetition of their thoughts and movements in a fascinating exercise. Caron Penney, the head of studio and of the project shows me in great detail the research that goes into the making, from careful examination of the originals that hang in the Cloisters in New York to the establishment of the colour palette, the dyeing of the range of yarn and the sampling of the elements that make up these incredibly complex panoramas. Conforming to ancient techniques, tonal gradations are achieved through areas of “hatching” in singular colours rather than mixing strands of wool together. There are enchanting vignettes of botanically accurate bunches of “millefleurs”, dainty animals, prancing hunters clothed in a variety of fabrics, jewelled ladies, sleek baying hounds, animated mediaeval faces and the calm purity of the hunted mythical Unicorn in their midst.
The tapestries are being woven on a horizontal or low warp loom at West Dean and also on a vertical, high warp loom at Stirling Castle in Scotland. Four of the tapestries are complete and the last two will be ready in 2013. They will grace the Queen’s apartments in the Palace at Stirling Castle, currently undergoing renovation to receive them in their full glory. The tapestries are one tenth smaller and warped at ten ends to the inch as opposed to the 18 -20 ends of the originals which were woven in Brussels between 1495 and 1505.
A week later I am making the steep ascent to the castle, buoyed by the thought of what awaits me at the top – its perfect picture book setting crowning the small Scottish town, its ancient grey stone walls, turrets, ramparts affording views of deep green valleys swept by icy winds. At the very end of the compound sits a visitor friendly, purpose built studio that houses the upright loom where the current tapestry being woven, more visible and so more awe inspiring in its vertical format. Louise Martin, who heads the studio here is a welcoming and informative host, discussing the research that had gone into the making of the work and the awareness that is kept constantly of the series as a whole. Much like the in depth study that accompanies the presentation of a play or performance, there is ongoing observation of the physical nuances and colour shifts throughout the suite of tapestries as they are being woven. This is apparent as I view the four completed tapestries that hang temporarily in the chapel.
The West Dean weavers manage also to make their own work, notably this year for the Collect exhibition sponsored by the British Crafts Council and held at the prestigious Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea at the end of May. I was privy to some of these small works, some complete, some works in progress that showed the diversity of the weavers’ talent, far from the constraints of their daily employment. Inspired by the myth of Arachne, the immortal weaver, Caron Penney, Jo Howard, Katharine Swailes, Pat Taylor, Phillip Sanderson and Louise Martin have created inventive individual small works for exhibit and sale.
A visit to the town of Exeter in Devon yielded another encounter with a group of artist weavers who live and work in the area. Hosted by Jilly Edwards, I was able to visit their studios and indulge in a dialogue, a precious commodity to those of us who practise this singular, time consuming, and generally isolating passion. Finding common ground is easy as you stand in a studio setting, the familiarity of the scaffolding loom, the finely turned wooden bobbins, the tactile glow of a shelf of coloured wool waiting to be formed into a tapestry. Conversation flows easily in this shared space. Jilly’s works, referenced from bold, colour saturated paint notations are softly abstract and deal with journeys. Sometimes they express themselves “off the wall” in coiled, segmented, linear panels. Christine Sawyer tackles the pharmaceutical industry in her large, figurative tapestries and I was able to enjoy a series of graphite drawings she was making for exhibition of “bandaged” plant forms, a response to interventionist practices that harm the environment. I found the work of Anne Jackson most fascinating, and her weaving technique even more so. She employs a knotting technique on un -tensioned warps and weaves her tapestries from the top down. Her subject matter deals with the burning of witches – the last of whom met their demise in Exeter – tapping into graphic mediaeval imagery whilst expressing current feminist concerns. They all exhibit with the British Tapestry Group, the first of two organizations that seem to simultaneously foster and divide contemporary weavers in the UK, although some artists exhibit with both groups.
Formed in 2005 as a promotional tool and communication network for tapestry weavers, the BTG now boasts 121 members and two major exhibitions in 2006 and 2008. The excellent catalogue of the juried Tapestry 08 exhibition gives an insight into the range and quality of contemporary work being produced. Spanning several generations of practitioners whose methods range from producing flat, traditional, image based styles to more irregular forms the collection is a bright accumulation brought together by the curator, June Hill. William Jefferies, who was setting standards in his creative use of the medium thirty years ago is still pushing the boundaries with his beautiful shaped and textured pieces today, employing a rich collage of form and shape to evoke illusion.
The other group, STAR, has re-emerged from Edinburgh after a long lapse. Driven by the dedication of Maureen Hodge, lecturer and Head of Tapestry at ECA from 1973 – 2006, STAR (Scottish Tapestry Artists Re-grouped) is the phoenix from the ashes of STAG, (Scottish Tapestry Artists Group) with whom I exhibited in 1980 and infamously had an entire exhibition stolen from a gallery in Covent Garden in 1981. I was delighted to be able to sit in Maureen’s kitchen in Edinburgh after 30 years, enjoying her hospitality and her generous enthusiasm for the new project in her care. The 17 members of STAR are all graduates of the ECA course and are established exhibiting artists in their own right. They have just held their second exhibition to coincide with the Edinburgh Festival entitled This is NOW – from Drawing to Contexture.
More adventurous in structure and inclusive of artists whose work could be more easily defined as sculpture, the conceptual nature of the work is paramount. There is some truly exciting new work from younger artists like Anna Ray, whose large, stuffed fabric pieces squirm in giant parody of woven form sitting alongside the refined perfection of a mentor like Archie Brennan. I was able to visit several artists’ studios and enjoy their work and processes first hand. Linda Green’s pieces emanate in three dimensions from the underlying tension of small grids on which she builds in a delicate profusions of fibre, wire and nylon, drawing directly with the materials. Fiona Hutchison, a weaver who is also a sailor plumbs watery depths for her inspiration in horizons of woven blue flecked with surfaces of hairy white foam. Her more recent work is with painted, coiled and threaded tracing paper. Sara Brennan’s tapestries also deal with muted horizons - like the dragging of paint in one colour over the surface of another her marks explore the accidental fallout of the action made deliberate by the carefully constructed weaving. Maureen Hodge’s richly textured works inhabit their unique sensual space, a spill of thick back fibres interspersed with gleaming gold leaf mapping her particular place in the world.
I was privileged to fly to the magical Orkney islands to visit an old friend, Carol Dunbar, also a recognised tapestry weaver and currently Education Officer with the respected Pier Gallery in Stromness. She expressed surprise at the overblown essays that accompany Australian textile artists’ work. I observed that in the U.K. weavers make their work, whether carefully designed or spontaneously manifested, without feeing that it has to be justified in academic language. I assume this springs from the security and support of having a long and strong tradition in the arts and crafts.
And what of the Edinburgh College of Art’s Tapestry Department from which all this activity sprang and its point of inspiration, the Dovecot Studios? On a cold, sunny spring day I was able to explore both these institutions and found a story of endings and new beginnings being played out within a Royal Mile of each other. David Weir, the enthusiastic new Director of the Dovecot showed me the beautiful new incarnation of the Studio, saved by a private benefactor, Alastair Salveson, and installed in the newly and spectacularly renovated Edinburgh Baths. With a huge timbered floor space and generously proportioned mezzanine area that surrounds it they have found a home that compares very well with the gracious interior of our own Victorian Tapestry Workshop, and hopes are high for its financial viability. Later in the day I met Susan Mowatt, tapestry weaver and lecturer at the College who kindly showed me around what has now transformed into the Intermedia Department. All the students work diligently on their laptops and there is not a single loom in sight!
