Built in Tapestry: Dovecot Tapestries and Architecture
Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh May 18 – Dec 22
www.dovecotstudios.com
DOVECOT Tapestries has a long history of working with organizations and individuals to commission, and one of the fascinating aspects of that work is in the design of a work to fit a specific wall or space within a new building – a certain symbiosis being required between architecture and artwork.
It all harks back to the heyday of the tapestry in the mediaeval period, although no self-respecting hermetically-sealed architect-designed home would now need a tapestry to line a drafty hall – there are now more economical, if less aesthetically pleasing ways to keep your heating bills down. But if many mediaeval tapestries were designed for specific spaces, they were also valued for their ability to be rolled up and transported to other palaces – second, third or fourth homes, you might say.
These contemporary pieces are perhaps more rooted in place, not least Alison Watt’s Butterfly, designed specifically for the Page and Park Architects extension to the Theatre Royal in Glasgow. Referencing Madama Butterfly, the Puccini opera which played a significant part in Scottish Opera’s history, the work was Watt’s first tapestry commission.
Elsewhere, there is Victoria Crowe’s epic frieze tapestry for the Leathersellers Hall in London and Frank Stella’s Had Gadya tapestries for PepsiCo HQ. Whilst none of the tapestries themselves are on display – being safely hung in the spaces for which they were designed – the works, and the specific requirements of designing for the spaces, are documented here in photographs and words. And this being the Viewing Balcony, you can also see real-life tapestry weaving going on on the workshop floor below, a fascinating process in itself.
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