Repetition

Carmen Vicente

The processes of tapestry weaving can often be repetitious, especially the weaving. This repetition resembles a ritualistic practice imparting  a certain meditative quality to it. Repetition is an important element in understanding and describing a work of art. 

Recently a Picasso sold at auction for a record price - about $182 million. As you know, Picasso developed  a distinctive and recognizable style, as did many well known artists of this period like Monet, Turner, and in Canada, A Y Jackson, and the Group of Seven. These are artists that the general public are familiar with.

Carmen Vincente

In the tapestry world there are tapestry artists whose work I recognize instantly: Barbara Heller, Jane Kidd, Marcel Marois, Sarah Swett, Rebecca Mezoff, Kathe Todd Hooker , Archie Brennan, and Thoma Ewen. What distinguishes each artist? What makes their work have impact? To me what comes through is a clear sense of who one is, and this shapes the aesthetic and practice that defines them. In each of their tapestries, they are telling you something of who they are, something very personal.   Personal values, perceptions and points of view are conveyed, as well as consistent aesthetic and colour choices, which reveals to the viewer a pattern in the persons work, practice and visual representations. These repeated elements  create a coherent and unified body of work, and come to define the artist's style.

Kashmir weaving, Peter Harris

EXHIBITIONS

TEx@ATA: Over the Sea, Under the Sky:
Contemporary Danish Tapestry
Curated by Ulrikka Mokdad

The Journey of the Viking Ship I 

Marianne Poulsen, 2000, haute-lisse, cotton warp, wool, linen, silk, metal threads, 200 x 250 cm, (photo by Jan Djenner)

 Visit our latest Tex@ATA online exhibition!
 'Over the Sea, Under the Sky' features works by contemporary Danish weavers produced during the last 15 year. The exhibition is curated by Ulrikka Mokdad, weaver and art historian. "It has been my intention to curate an exhibition of tapestries that relate to the Nordic landscape and seascape and to their connected history and myths. The artists represented here are united by their respect for the integrity of weaving, but there the resemblance ends. Some of them reflect their subject matter in potent realism, others let the woven surface blossom in vibrant natural lyricism and others compress emotional experiences into subtle symbols."
http://americantapestryalliance.org/exhibitions/tex_ata/over-the-sea-under-the-sky-contemporary-danish-tapestry/?utm_source=TEx+Exhibition+March+2014&utm_campaign=TEx%40ATA+Mokdad&utm_medium=email