Interactive Tapestries as exhibited at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre 25th July – 20th August 2022 and now available for other interested venues.
The content of the show spans just over 20 years in order to show examples of the development of my use of barbed wire in weaving followed by the inclusion of sound.
See the 3 min video below.
In this post I am focusing on my tapestries Interconnection and Metamorphosis (see below). Information and images about my use of barbed wire in my weaving can be found here and I have written an introduction to my use of sound and interaction here on my website.
Interconnection
The design for this tapestry was developed intuitively over the year it took to weave. I had the basic idea in my mind and had scribbled notes and ideas in my sketchbook, but not many details. The design is about our interconnection with the environment, both natural and man made and the conflict within that relationship, hence the barbed wire being in amongst the unspun alpaca wool at the bottom of the tapestry.
The tapestry has a 50 minute looping soundscape – a field recording of a walk I took up my local hills and the interactive audio reflects aspects of both natural and man made environments.
Metamorphosis
This tapestry is the exception to the design themes in this exhibition. Whilst all my work is a personal response to different aspects of conflict, communication and the environment, this piece is deeply personal. It is my response to the death of my parents within a week of each other in 2018.
There is a 10.5 minute looping soundscape which is composed largely of audio generated on the computer and also includes recordings of my parents’ voices. Much of the soundscape is based on the word “hello”, even the deep base rhythms come from this greeting spoken by my father. The interactive audio presents different aspects of their lives, including spoken words such as my mother’s oft used phrase “anything is possible” or the sound of their grandfather clock and an old slide projector.
