05-09-2017, 05:29 PM
[SIZE="4"]This unveils Chris Ofili’s first designed tapestry; a triptych entitled “The cage Bird’s Songâ€Â. The title echoes the writer and black activist Maya Angelou’s powerful autobiography “I Know Why Caged Birds Singâ€Â.
The tapestry is hung against a painted mural designed by the artist especially for its installation in the National Gallery, London. A sequence of swaying, monumental temple dancers (painted by the scenery painters from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden) entice the visitor towards the richly coloured, hand-woven wall-hanging.
Ofili is a British painter who lives and works in Trinidad. Renowned for his fluid and sensual painting style, Ofili’s challenge to the weavers was to capture the qualities of watercolour in thread. He provided them with a preparatory watercolour design which they used as a primary aid during the weaving process. The weavers scaled-up his design on the warp of the loom and spent two and a half years hand weaving the tapestry in close collaboration with the artist.
Ofili explains “The Cage Bird’s Song†is a marriage of watercolour and weaving. I set out to do something free flowing in making a watercolour, encouraging the liquid pigment to form the image, a contrast to the weaving process. With their response, which is an interpretation rather than a reproduction, the weavers have paid a type of homage to the watercolour that I gave them as well as to the weaving process.
On either side of the central panel, a man and a woman draw back curtains to revel an Arcadian scene. Beneath the waterfall, beside lapping waters with the sea behind, a couple recline, their bodies entwined. As the guitar playing man serenades his companion, she drinks a sparkling liquid that is poured in to her glass by a figure hidden above. Oblivious of our gaze,the couple appear absorbed in their actions, but the thunderous sky to the left suggests there is a darkening to come.
Commissioned by the City of London’s Clothworkers’ Company and woven at the Dovecote Tapestry Studio, Edinburgh, the tapestry’s permanent home will be in the Clothworkers’ Hall.
The above text is taken from the exhibition at the National Gallery, London.
In the first three photos I deliberately included the human figures to give scale to the work. The following photos are details of the work so one can appreciate the incredible work of the weavers.
There was a interesting 15 minute film about its creation in which he explained how initially he didn’t want to accept the commission because he was afraid that conditions would be imposed on him by the Clothworkers' Company but they allowed him free rein.
He works in watercolour and wondered how the weavers could possibly translate the subtleties of watercolour using wool. At one point while painting in turquoise, the colour began to run and blend in to the colour alongside. He left it as it was and it was due to the brilliance of the Dovecote Weavers Studio in Edinburgh who explained that instead of using just one colour that would make it look like flat cardboard, they would use up to six. You can see this in the details that I have attached. It’s good to know that there are craftspeople capable of producing such beauty still working in the UK.
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The tapestry is hung against a painted mural designed by the artist especially for its installation in the National Gallery, London. A sequence of swaying, monumental temple dancers (painted by the scenery painters from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden) entice the visitor towards the richly coloured, hand-woven wall-hanging.
Ofili is a British painter who lives and works in Trinidad. Renowned for his fluid and sensual painting style, Ofili’s challenge to the weavers was to capture the qualities of watercolour in thread. He provided them with a preparatory watercolour design which they used as a primary aid during the weaving process. The weavers scaled-up his design on the warp of the loom and spent two and a half years hand weaving the tapestry in close collaboration with the artist.
Ofili explains “The Cage Bird’s Song†is a marriage of watercolour and weaving. I set out to do something free flowing in making a watercolour, encouraging the liquid pigment to form the image, a contrast to the weaving process. With their response, which is an interpretation rather than a reproduction, the weavers have paid a type of homage to the watercolour that I gave them as well as to the weaving process.
On either side of the central panel, a man and a woman draw back curtains to revel an Arcadian scene. Beneath the waterfall, beside lapping waters with the sea behind, a couple recline, their bodies entwined. As the guitar playing man serenades his companion, she drinks a sparkling liquid that is poured in to her glass by a figure hidden above. Oblivious of our gaze,the couple appear absorbed in their actions, but the thunderous sky to the left suggests there is a darkening to come.
Commissioned by the City of London’s Clothworkers’ Company and woven at the Dovecote Tapestry Studio, Edinburgh, the tapestry’s permanent home will be in the Clothworkers’ Hall.
The above text is taken from the exhibition at the National Gallery, London.
In the first three photos I deliberately included the human figures to give scale to the work. The following photos are details of the work so one can appreciate the incredible work of the weavers.
There was a interesting 15 minute film about its creation in which he explained how initially he didn’t want to accept the commission because he was afraid that conditions would be imposed on him by the Clothworkers' Company but they allowed him free rein.
He works in watercolour and wondered how the weavers could possibly translate the subtleties of watercolour using wool. At one point while painting in turquoise, the colour began to run and blend in to the colour alongside. He left it as it was and it was due to the brilliance of the Dovecote Weavers Studio in Edinburgh who explained that instead of using just one colour that would make it look like flat cardboard, they would use up to six. You can see this in the details that I have attached. It’s good to know that there are craftspeople capable of producing such beauty still working in the UK.
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"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams