TDPA Jury Report Cameron Bruhn
In The Four Elements of Architecture, a book published in 1851, the nineteenth century German architect, artist and educator Gottfried Semper uses anthropological methods to describe the origins of the most ancient architectural elements – the hearth, the roof, the enclosure, and the mound. For Semper, the utility of enclosure, which over thousands of years has evolved to become the wall, has its origins in the practices of textiles and weaving. This is a useful theory in framing the conversation between architecture and tapestry expressed and celebrated through the Australian Tapestry Workshop’s biennial Tapestry Design Prize for Architects and connects the latest iteration of this globally unique program with the architectural setting offered to 2021 entrants. The hypothetical site for the 2021
Tapestry Design Prize for Architects is the award-winning Phoenix Central
Park, a building located in the Sydney suburb of Chippendale, and designed by John Wardle Architects and Durbach Block Jaggers. The monumental, park-side facade of philanthropist and patron Judith Neilson’s artistic and cultural palazzo is an intriguing curtain wall, fashioned from creamy, white bricks, set flush and softly washed. This pleated, pressed, and scalloped drapery is a contemporary architectural textile that recalls Semper‘s etymological account of the language of the wall. This architecture deftly entwines provenance and metaphor in a manner that intellectually recalls the woven polychrome brickwork of William Butterfield’s All Saints Margaret Street, an 1850s Anglo-Catholic Church in London, and the collage brick and stone facade of pre-postmodernist Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik’s 1930s National and University Library of Slovenia in Ljubljana. John Wardle Architects designed the gallery in the east wing of Phoenix Central Park and applicants for the prize were asked to submit a tapestry design in response to one of three sites within this side of the building – the basement gallery; the double height gallery; or the top floor gallery. The Tapestry Design Prize for Architects was established in 2015 and has garnered local and (increasingly) international participation across four iterations. Each has been hypothetically situated in an iconic architectural work – most recently the Pharos Wing at MONA in Tasmania designed by Fender Katsalidis Architects. In 2021 forty percent of entries were based outside of Australia – including Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bosnia, Canada, Croatia, France, India, Iran, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States of America. The six-member
2021 jury, chaired by the author, brought together expertise from across architecture, art, and weaving practice, and comprised Brook Andrew, Diane
Jones, Valerie Kirk, Dimmity Walker and John Wardle (the 2015 Tapestry Design Prize for Architects joint winner for Perspectives on a Flat Surface). This group took on the responsibility of carefully reviewing 141 designs from individuals, partnerships, and collaborations and establishing consensus on the work judged to be both the most innovative and promising in representing the future trajectory of architecture and tapestry.
In 2021 the jury shortlisted fifteen proposals and highly commended three – A Paradigm Shift by Abhinay H. Satam and Shristi D. Rawat (India); Apocalypse by Michael Chapman (Australia) and This Place by Madeleine Gallagher, Julie Lee, Georgina de Beaujeu and Lis de Vries (Australia). The three highly commended entries are diverse and thought-provoking in their content and technique, each of them seeking to explore and speculate on the intersection of architecture and tapestry. The group unanimously chose an overall winner, the recipient of the $10,000 award. Ground Under Repair is a multidisciplinary design group based in Melbourne and comprising Emma Jackson (the Program Manager of the Bachelor of Architectural Design at RMIT Architecture), Eilidh Ross, Riley Pelham-Thorman and Abigail Li Shin Liew. Titled Time Shouts, the Ground Under Repair entry is designed to be hung within the double height gallery at Phoenix. This two-part floor and wall work sets up a conversation with the interlocking oculus that connects the interior of the gallery with the urban landscape beyond. This non-rectangular tapestry design seeks to connect with country and uses thoughtful research and mapping to reveal “the story of the period of time between present day to the break-up of the ancient Gondwanan continent.” Time Shouts seeks to shift perceptions and values and is a beautiful and provocative entry that exemplifies and expands the agenda of the Tapestry Design Prize for Architects.
Exhibition of Finalists 26 August – 12 November 2021
Australian Tapestry Workshop 262 – 266 Park Street South Melbourne VIC 3205 austapestry.com.au
$1000 People’s Choice Award Voting closes 5 pm 12 November 2021
Explore the finalist designs and vote for your favourite online: tapestrydesignprize.org