John Allen - Carpets for the Wall

John Allen Carpets for the Wall

John Allen

John Allen The Forbidden Kingdom

Wool and silk carpets hand-made in Nepal

GOLDMARK 2009

The Forbidden Kingdom John Allen's new exhibition of carpets for the wall is called The Forbidden Kingdom. All the work has been inspired by Nepalese culture and landscape. Allen has travelled to Nepal for many years trekking in the high Himalayas and exploring old cultural sites.

This exhibition is John Allen’s creative response to his experiences and Nepalese visits. The work starts with figurative pieces which are slowly abstracted, with elements of decorative pattern and flowers being introduced. This then leads the way to entirely decorative or abstract designs. The latter have been influenced by the strange mix, so often observed in Nepal, of the sophisticated being juxtaposed with the naive. Into this heady mix Allen has introduced his own western creative style and ideas. The mixture of religious cultures and architectural styles experienced in Nepal are not only fascinating, but visually stimulating. Alien elements are often introduced into traditional themes and used together producing exciting, sometimes challenging, but always interesting visual effects.

The wool used in the carpets is grown in Tibet and carried by mule train over the Himalayas into the Kathmandu valley where it is sorted and hand-spun, dyed and woven. All the designs are worked in London, as are the graphs from which the weavers work. One

graph can take up to two weeks to plan. It is at this stage that the drawing of the design is finalised. A high level of combined weaving skills and creative design skills is needed if the best results are to be achieved. Mistakes at this stage can rarely be corrected once weaving of the carpet has begun. Having trained as a weaver at Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College, Allen’s understanding of technical skills has enabled him to introduce new techniques to the native weavers and some of these are evident in this exhibition. Different pile levels of the knotting and combinations with flat weaving have been introduced to enhance the textural surfaces.

The colour used is inspired by the landscape seen particularly in the high Himalayas and the Mustang region (The Forbidden Kingdom).

The colours are ever changing in tone and shade, influenced by the season and weather at different times of the year. The way the mist and clouds on clear, blue sky days can alter landscapes is magical, as is the experience of seeing hillsides in the lower Himalayas full of flowers and the famous rhododendron forests. Who could not be affected by such visual treats? The Imperial cities, particularly Buhkturpur, have also worked their magic; places where life seems to have stood still for centuries. At certain times of the year in this best preserved of the Imperial cities the streets are used to dry the

harvest. The most spectacular being when the red chillies are spread all over the roads with just a small pathway left to allow people to walk through. The streets look as though they have been covered in a carpet worked in every shade of red and orange with ever changing tones, as the sun moves its position in the sky. The way in which colour is used in Nepal ranges from subtle shading, as experienced in the landscapes, to clashing primary colours seen in the temple hangings and the women’s national costume.

All the designs have been inspired by some aspect of the experiences Allen has had in Nepal. As the work developed many elements of stylisation and abstraction have been introduced which has led to colour combinations not normally associated with his work. Once the exhibits have been designed and graphed in the London studio they are taken to Kathmandu and talked through with the weavers. Each design is discussed in great detail, so the weavers know exactly what the artist is aiming to achieve and to ensure the interpretation will be correct. The development of designs and technique is an ongoing process and is challenging for all concerned. This exhibition is the compilation of designs first photographed, drawn or painted, then reinterpreted in woven carpets. It admirably shows John Allen’s creative development.

The Carpets

2. Mountain Snow, 124 x 75 cm, ÂŁ1950

3. Bush, Pools and Lakes, 117 x 142 cm, ÂŁ1850

4. Stuppa Langta, 94 x 102 cm, ÂŁ2400

5. Rock Face, 126 x 84 cm, £2850

6. Complex Mountains, 148 x 105 cm, ÂŁ1950

7. Carpet Stuppa, 99 x 151 cm, ÂŁ2750

8. River Gorge, 81 x 117 cm, ÂŁ1400

9. Birds, 145 x 80 cm, ÂŁ1950

10. River and Terraces, 181 x 89 cm, ÂŁ1950

11. Bouda Stuppa, 86 x 53 cm, £1450

12. Mount Everest, 87 x 102 cm, ÂŁ1750

13. Snow Storm, 130 x 84 cm, £1950

14. Mountain Path with Sun, 129 x 84.5 cm, ÂŁ1950

15. Mule Train, 108 x 155 cm, ÂŁ2650

16. River Gorge II, 86.5 x 113 cm, flax, one off, ÂŁ1400

17. Optical Mountains, 92 x 67 cm, ÂŁ1750

18. Celestial Personage, 156 x 43 cm, £1750

19. Bird in Tree, 134 x 34 cm, £950

20. Rainbow Triptych, 163 x 107 cm, £1950

21. Rhododendrons, 126 x 106 cm, ÂŁ1950

Biography General education in Matlock, Derbyshire BA Hons, Camberwell School of Art, London MA, Royal College of Art, London Fellow of the Royal College of Art Trained originally as a dental technician, then after two years in the army, worked as a coalman, before training to become a textile designer. He has been a textile designer specialising in printed, woven and knitted fabrics for over 25 years, and worked in most areas of the textile craft industry.

1977 set up the knitting department at the Royal College of Art in London, where he was organising tutor until 1989 when he left to concentrate on his own work. He lectures and conducts workshops and master classes, but always continues to work as a consultant designer for companies as diverse as Kanebo in Japan and the Shetland Islands Traders Association.

1985 made a Fellow of the Royal College.

1989 responsible for planning the new design courses for the Nihon Vogue School in Japan.

Allen has appeared on television and radio programmes about design and textiles and was heavily involved in the development of the 12 week series of textile programmes for Anglia Television in 1993. He has written 5 books and writes regularly for numerous magazines and journals. His first book broke all sales records at the

22. Butterfly, 117 x 85 cm, ÂŁ1950

time, for any craft book, selling over 110,000 copies. He has lectured and conducted seminars in Japan, Holland and all the English speaking countries around the world.

1993 appointed consultant to the Victoria and Albert Museum for specialist study days and was instrumental in setting up the Design for Knitting and Art of the Stitch days, these are now annual events.

1997 organised and selected the contemporary work for the Barcelona Terrassa Textiles Museum exhibition, One Thousand Years of Knitting. Compiled a short history of British knitting from 1940 to the present time.

Allen regularly writes and presents papers at conferences and in 1998 presented a paper to the National Knitting Forum, in Dallas Texas and at the Parsons School of Fashion and Textiles in New York.

1999 invited to become president of the Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Association.

2000 curated the Anglo-Dutch New Concepts in Knitting exhibition for the Dutch National Textile Museum in Tilburg, Holland.

2003 first ever one-man exhibition starting at the London Knitting and Stitching Show, where 90% of the work was sold.

23. Blue Bird, 44 x 51 cm, ÂŁ700 frontis:

1. Patan, 140 x105 cm, ÂŁ2750 All carpets are hand-woven in Nepal using hand-spun and dyed wool and silk.

Each carpet is produced in an edition of 3 only.

Photographs of Nepal by John Allen

Goldmark Gallery Orange Street Uppingham Rutland LE15 9SQ 01572 821424 www.goldmarkart.com

Goldmark Gallery regularly publish catalogues and make films on individual artists, and potters. For an up-to-date list see www.goldmarkart.com