Weaving New Worlds > William Morris Gallery, London
16 June to 23 September 2018
An exhibition of contemporary tapestry building on, and developed from, the success of 'Here and Now', by invitation from the William Morris Gallery, London.
What we wanted to do
To take William Morris's famous work 'News from Nowhere', a meditation on utopia, as a starting point for an exhibition of tapestries on the themes of Utopia or Dystopia.
What we achieved
William Morris believed weaving “to be one of the most important branches” of the art of textiles. This exhibition affirmed his conviction, showcasing 16 of the most exciting and challenging international examples of tapestry today. The artists are from the UK, Norway, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. Displayed collectively they wove together the stories of our time. Their work offered an exploration of the human condition through two lenses: the utopian and the dystopian, subjects that Morris reflected on in his own work.
Statistics
Reviews in The Guardian, London Evening Standard
1,000 visitors on the final day
28,160 visitors in total
The Artists are:
Patricia Armour (New Zealand)
Work dedicated to her grandfather and all who are lost at sea.
Joan Baxter (UK)
Working with the Scottish Highland landscape and mythology
Sara Brennan (UK)
Working with the Scottish landscape and in particular a forest outside Edinburgh
Jilly Edwards (UK)
Working with the English landscape this new work specifically chronicles her move back to Bristol after a 45 year gap.
Amanda Gizzi (UK)
Work depicting the symbiotic relationship of love.
Barbara Heller (Canada)
Work reflects current affairs, in this case forest fires caused by logging, the devastation in Syria and hope as symbolised by the pine cone.
Mari Meen Halsøy (Norway)
Installation created in Beirut as a response to war damaged buildings
Jenny Moncur (UK)
Captured views that surprise and are joyous to behold.
Caron Penney (UK)
Intersections of uncertainty, vulnerability and decision making.
Erin M. Riley (USA)
Tapestry based on childhood memories of crashes caused by drunk driving, which she links to violence to women.
Christine Sawyer (UK)
Work concerned with those incidents both global and personal that appear without warning.
Joanne Soroka (UK)
Weathered and over-painted surfaces are related to family history of migration.
Tonje Høydahl Sørli (Norway)
Works with recognisable cartoon figures and images to comment on power relationships.
Miyuki Tatsumi (Japan)
Reflections on longing for somewhere else
Pat Taylor (UK)
Working with ideas about the visible and invisible using the faces of the famous and those who surround us and are unnoticed
Kanae Tsutsumi (Japan)
The visible and invisible as understood by the term 'Cosmos'
