A Passion for Tapestry: Small Tapestries from a Private Collection
until Friday 1 February 2019
A Passion for Tapestry is an exhibition of small tapestries from the collection of Tuppy Cole, long-term friend and supporter of the ATW. Throughout her long association with ATW, she has collected many wonderful tapestries and the exhibition features 18 small tapestries, woven since 2004, by weavers at the ATW.
Artists: GW Bot, Belinda Fox, Graham Fransella, Helen Fuller, Deborah Klein, Pauline Sunfly Nangala, Nusra Latif Qureshi. Weavers: Sue Batten, Grazyna Bleja, Chris Cochius, Amy Cornall, Milly Formby, Louise King, Sara Lindsay, Rebecca Moulton, Laura Mar, Cheryl Thornton.
The collection includes tapestries that interpret designs by significant Australian artists, as well as tapestries based on the weaver’s own designs. Many of the works are experimental and demonstrate the open possibilities of the tapestry form.
Together, the exhibition presents a diverse snapshot of contemporary tapestry, and the imaginative styles of ATW weavers past and present.
Guan Wei tapestry at ARC ONE Gallery, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
Tuesday 13 November – Thursday 20 December 2018
Designed by renowned Chinese-Australian artist Guan Wei Treasure Hunt is a major tapestry woven at the Australian Tapestry Workshop. Treasure Hunt was woven by ATW weavers Chris Cochius, Pamela Joyce, Jennifer Sharpe, and Cheryl Thornton, it took more than 1300 hours to weave. The Treasure Hunt tapestry is on display at ARC ONE Gallery amongst other new works in Guan Wei’s latest solo show Chivalry.
Treasure Hunt was based on a large wall mural that Guan Wei painted for his solo exhibition Other Histories at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney in 2006. In the Treasure Hunt tapestry Guan Wei imagines the explorations of Zheng He, the famous Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral who, between 1405 and 1433, led a legendary fleet of ‘treasure ships’ throughout Asia to East Africa. It is an intricate tapestry, adorned in flora and fauna as well as animals and monsters drawn from Chinese and European mythology.
Following a cutting off ceremony on 10 July 2018, Treasure Hunt made its first public appearance at the Australian Design Centre in Sydney as a key work in the exhibition Painting with Thread: Tapestries and Samples from the Australian Tapestry Workshop.
Collecting, Curating and Conservation; Friends of the ATW Lecture Series event.
Thursday 29 November 2018, 6:30pm, refreshments from 6:00pm
Collecting, Curating and Conservation is a special talk with special guest speaker Louis Le Vaillant and weaver Karlie Hawking.
Louis Le Vaillant is the Director and Curator of the Johnston Collection in East Melbourne. This house museum is the legacy of William Robert Johnston, an antique dealer and collector, and displays a rich collection of fine decorative arts from the Georgian, Regency and Louis XV period.
Louis Le Vaillant will speak about the history of the Johnston Collection and how a private collection becomes a public museum. He will also consider the curatorial challenges of maintaining a collection and the changing displays within a domestic context. This includes exhibitions with contemporary artists and designers who reinterpret objects from the collection.
Following Louis’ talk, ATW weaver Karlie Hawking will speak about textile conservation and how to care for artworks in collections.
Collecting, Curating and Curating is held as part of the Passion for Tapestry: Small Tapestries from a Private Collection exhibition.
TECHSTYLE Series 3.0 – Textile Legacy, Now and Future, Hong Kong, guest speaker, ATW Director, Antonia Syme.
Friday 7 – Sunday 9 December 2018
Hosted by the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT), Hong Kong, TECHSTYLE Series is a unique cross-disciplinary platform with international speakers to discuss multiple agendas related to textile culture. For the third edition in 2018, TECHSTYLE Series 3.0: Textile Legacy Now and Future, international researchers, curators, artists and diverse textile practitioners are invited to share their experiences and innovative challenges, exchanging creative ideas about preservation and rejuvenation of local textile legacy.
Australian Tapestry Workshop, 262–266 Park St, South Melbourne. Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10am – 5pm. www.austapestry.com.au / 9699 7885.