Caron Penney & Katharine Swailes:
MANHATTAN
An exhibition of hand woven tapestry
Above: 108 Crosses by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry 14 x 14 cm, cotton Cover image: Seventh Avenue by Caron Penney Hand woven tapestry 20 x 20 cm, wool
Caron Penney & Katharine Swailes Manhattan 6 to 27 June 2015 at Zimmer Stewart Gallery 29 Tarrant Street Arundel West Sussex BN18 9DG tel: 01903 882063 email: info@zimmerstewart.co.uk
www.zimmerstewart.co.uk
Crossing Intersection by Caron Penney Hand woven tapestry 21 x 21 cm wool
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atharine Swailes and Caron Penney travelled recurrently to New York City over a twelve year period. During this influential time both artists were inspired by the urban landscape, street architecture, museum collections and natural environment. Mapping this journey through photography, note taking and sketches to their resulting work in woven textiles.
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anhattan’ is the beginning of a new chapter for both the artists, one which has involved shedding the past and emerging into new avenues.
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he exhibition will be opened on Friday 5 June at the Private View from 6-8pm with a short introduction by Ann Sutton, MBE, internationally renowned for her work in woven textiles as an artist and for industry.
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wailes has created textiles for over 20 years, specifically working in tapestry for the last two decades. She specialises in both conventional flat wall works and smaller three-dimensional, sculptural pieces - as well as weaving large scale commissions at West Dean Tapestry Studio. Swailes is interested in the constructively open ended nature of the medium.
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ecent works explore the textures, systems and structure of Central Manhattan - using a limited palette of techniques, materials and colour. The inclusion of gold thread offers a contrast in structure to the natural fibres of cotton, linen and wool. This latest series of works draws on the collections in museums, the parks and streets of Manhattan.
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s well as working on high-profile commissions for the West Dean Tapestry Studio and her own Weftfaced Tapestry Workshop, Penney is a prolific exhibition-led weaver in her own right. ‘A defining characteristic of her oeuvre as an artist is the use of visual semiotics in expressing autobiographical themes’ (from Tapestry, A Woven Narrative: Black Dog Publishing 2012).
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enney uses references to the street architecture, structural comparisons between the warp and weft and the gridded road systems in New York City. The colour red establishes a sense of separation within a dominant monochromatic palette which is repeated throughout Penney’s work.
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oth Caron Penney and Katharine Swailes have worked on large scale commissions for established artists such as Tracey Emin (Black Cat was exhibited at Collect and Frieze in 2011), Martin Creed and Gillian Ayres (Tirra Lirra will be exhibited at Collect in 2015). They also helped reproduce seven tapestries of the 16th century “Hunt of the Unicorn” series of tapestries for Stirling Castle.
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uring the exhibition Swailes and Penney will be inviting participants (of all levels) to one of two Creative Workshops at Arundel Museum on 6 & 20 June.
Intersection in Motion by Caron Penney Hand woven tapestry 22 x 33 cm, wool
Twelve Avenues by Caron Penney Hand woven tapestry 30 x 40 cm, wool,
Entrance Manhattan by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry 22 x 20 cm, wool, cotton & gilt Window Manhattan by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry 22 x 19 cm, wool, cotton & gilt
MisplacedManhattan by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry 22 x 18 cm, wool, cotton & gilt
Descending by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry 22 x 18 cm, wool, cotton & gilt
16th Floor and 23rd Floor by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry 18 x 14 cm, wool, cotton & gilt
Looking Along by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry 22 x 19 cm, wool, cotton & linen
Looking Up by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry 22 x 19 cm, wool, cotton & linen
Looking Down Town by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry 23 x16 cm, linen, cotton & black wax
Drawings by Katharine Swailes 15 x 10 cm, ink on card
Seventh Avenue Night, Dusk and Dawn, by Caron Penney Hand woven tapestry 10 x 10 cm, wool
Intersection by Caron Penney Hand woven tapestry 30 x 29 cm, wool
Stop by Caron Penney Hand woven tapestry 39 x 39 cm, wool
Intersection 2 by Caron penney Hand woven tapestry 9 x 14 cm, wool
Intersection 3 by Caron penney Hand woven tapestry 9 x 14 cm, wool
Go Intersection by Caron Penney Hand woven tapestry 17 x 16 cm, wool
NYC 55th & 7th (Red) by Caron Penney Hand woven tapestry 10 x 6 cm, wool
Strata by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry hanging 2.3m x 14 cm, wool, linen
Gold Manhattan by Katharine Swailes Hand woven tapestry & vintage foot stool 30 x 40 x 15 cm, wool, linen, gilt
The tapestry was first shown by the Campaign for Wool (CfW) at their exhibition ‘Wool Interiors Collection’, at Southwark Cathedral in “Wool Week” in October 2014. It has most recently been shown at Collect 2015, this May at the Saatchi Gallery, London. Although abstract, the painting is evocative of two poetic sources, as is often the case with Gillian Ayres: The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, With, heigh! with, heigh! the thrush and the jay, Are summer songs for me and my aunts, While we lie tumbling in the hay from The Winters Tale by Shakespeare, Act IV, scene II, Autolycus sings
His broad clear brow in sunlight glow’d; On burnish’d hooves his war-horse trode; From underneath his helmet flow’d His coal-black curls as on he rode, As he rode down to Camelot. From the bank and from the river He flashed into the crystal mirror, ‘Tirra lirra,’ by the river Sang Sir Lancelot. from The Lady of Shallot by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Tirra Lirra by Gillian Ayres 2014, hand woven tapestry edition of three 102 x 122 cm commissioned by The Campaign for Wool, woven by Caron Penney, Courtesy Gillian Ayres, Alan Cristea Gallery and Weftfaced Š Gillian Ayres all rights reserved, 2014
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he art of tapestry weaving is one which Caron Penney has developed over a long career. This has involved the creation of artwork for artists such as Tracey Emin, Martin Creed, John Hubbard and Gillian Ayres. Penney contributed to the book ‘Tapestry - a woven narrative’ published in 2011 and Authenticity and Replication: the ‘Real Thing’ in Art and Art Conservation, in 2014.
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aving studied Constructed Textiles at Middlesex University, Penney graduated in 1993. Soon after this she began work at the West Dean Tapestry Studio were in 2009 she became the Studio Director. Penney runs her own Tapestry Workshop where she both interprets the work of other artists and her own designs.
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enney enjoys the narrative which tapestry has historically depicted. This combined with the use of the artist journal, creates a dialogue of notations which are developed and precisely woven in a carefully documented and ironic comment of life.
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defining characteristic of Penney’s own oeuvre is the use of visual semiotics in expressing autobiographical themes, says Tom Howells in Tapestry A Woven Narrative, Black Dog Publishing.
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s well as working on high-profile commissions for the West Dean Tapestry Studio and her own Weftfaced Tapestry Workshop, Penney is a prolific exhibition-led weaver in her own right.
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aron Penney says, “My artwork uses both references to the street architecture, and structural comparisons between the warp and weft and the gridded road systems in New York. Often these themes respond to the ebb and flow of the daily migration across the City. The subject matter draws comparisons between societies need to function and the individuals need for identity and their subtle co-existence.
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his careful balance is represented in the meticulous repetition of patterns and shapes in my tapestries. My artwork reproduces familiar visual signs arranging them in sequences and rhythms.”
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The colour red establishes a sense of separation within a dominant monochromatic palette. My ideas develop through observation, photography, sketches and the resulting tapestries. I use the same limited range of materials traditionally used to make hand woven tapestry, with the addition of dyed cotton warp thread which edges the finely woven pieces.”
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enney has exhibited her work in London at the Saatchi Gallery, Hayward Gallery, V&A Museum and the Fleming Collection. She has work in both public and private collections across the UK.
Caron Penney with her commission for Gillian Ayres, “Tirra Lirra”, at Collect 2015 at the Saatchi Gallery
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atharine Swailes studied at Carlisle College of Art and Design. She graduated in 1982 and then spent fifteen years working as a costumier and embellisher, for theatre, cinema and television.
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t was the constructive nature of woven tapestry that inspired her move to the medium in 1998, first studying at West Dean College. Following this she created work in her own studio, and also as a master weaver at West Dean Tapestry Studio, working for artists and designers such as Tracy Emin RA and Faye Toogood.
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wailes has shown at the V&A Museum, Saatchi Gallery and the Fleming Collection. Her work is held in private and national collections, nationally and internationally.
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anhattan series: History like the strata of the landscape builds up layers, my use of imagery and texture to create these constructed textile pieces evoke time and place.
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he vertical landscape and Museum collections of Central Manhattan, Central Park, are the inspiration for this ongoing series of work. The series of tapestries are hand woven and are constructed using the finest quality cotton, worsted wool, silk, bamboo and paper yarns. The palette of yarn is carefully chosen for both texture and colour. The colour evokes the age of the textiles held in the museums collection.
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he formal grid system of the avenues and streets and Central Park, mingle with the less formal patterns of the textiles to create a layered image that becomes a hand woven textile.
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ootstool is the first large scale three dimensional form Swailes has produced, using the ancient technique of weft faced woven tapestry. Starting with the construction of a pattern, a cartoon is then created. This is used as a guide for the weaving, the tapestry is woven to shape and then attached over the footstool.
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wailes specialises in both conventional flat wall works and smaller three-dimensional, sculptural pieces - as well as weaving large scale commissions at West Dean Tapestry Studio - and is interested in the constructively open ended nature of the medium.’ Tapestry - A Woven Narrative, Black Dog Publishers.
Gold Manhattan - Hand woven tapestry with gilt thread Footstool by Katharine Swailes Back cover: Gold Square One by Katharine Swailes ink and gouache drawing, 26 x 26 cm
Zimmer Stewart Gallery 29 Tarrant Street Arundel West Sussex BN18 9DG tel: 01903 882063 email: info@zimmerstewart.co.uk
www.zimmerstewart.co.uk