Ideas at warp speed
The Cordis Prize tapestries show that skill is not the enemy of creativity, but a vehicle to extend its ambition still further
Seeing exhibitions at Inverleith House these days can feel like rubbing salt in a wound. Since the closure of the building as a permanent contemporary art space, occasional exhibitions are painful reminders of what we’ve lost. Nevertheless, it’s better to see the building in use than empty and shuttered, and the shortlisted works for the look superb in its well proportioned Georgian rooms.
The £8,000 prize was set up in Edinburgh four years ago to encourage innovation in tapestry (Miranda Harvey, the wife of Ian Rankin, is a co-founder) and it now attracts entries from all over the world. Earlier this month, Norwegian Brita Been was announced as the winner for Vine, a large-scale
tapestry in wool inspired by the folk embroidery of her home region of Telemark.
While Vine is ambitious and splendidly colourful, the black background showing off the bold reds and blues of the floral design, Been’s work is one of the more conventional on the 16-strong shortlist. Others are pushing the envelope in terms of non-traditional materials, from magician’s rope (Emma Jo Webster) to streamers (Susan Mowatt) and strips of yoga mat (Jessica Brouder), to Anna Ray’s glorious creation in wire and tassels.
Innovation within a traditional craft such as tapestry can be dangerous. One is reminded of the fate of the tapestry department at Edinburgh College of Art which innovated itself out of existence: shifting away from textiles to “the weaving of ideas,” it left weaving behind altogether and was renamed Intermedia.
The Cordis Prize focuses on works of ambition and creativity which retain links to the craft of woven textiles, but that doesn’t mean they don’t push the boundaries. Philip Sanderson, the only man on the shortlist, uses wool, ribbon and strips of cloth to make a chunky, rug-like weave; Rachel Johnston creates a work in which the weave grows gradually looser; Linda Green challenges the traditional square edges, while Yasuko Fujino creates a monochrome work subtly defined by changes in texture.
Joanne Soroka weaves in seed pods from the ash tree in her tribute to Irene Sendler, who smuggled more than 2,000 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation. Anne Stabell is shortlisted for two works which capture the sense of light in a wood in shimmering semi-transparent weaves of gold and white. Louise Martin’s work in paper yarn is so delicate it is almost invisible at first, but draws out a network of fields using a single interwoven thread.
All these artists combine qualities of vision and ambition with a high
The Cordis Prize for Tapestry
Inverleith House, Edinburgh
Louise Martin’s work in paper yarn is so delicate it is almost invisible at first, but draws out a network of fields using a single interwoven thread
Anne-marie Copestake
Cooper Gallery, Dundee
Arpita Shah: Nalini
Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow degree of learned technique and skill. They are working in a traditional craft but are not bound by it, instead using their skill as a platform from which to realise creative ideas. Contemporary art seems, at times, to devalue skill, prizing creativity above all else. This show is a reminder that skill is not the enemy of creativity, but a vehicle to extend its ambition still further. Glasgow-based artist
has been making work in Scotland for 20 years, yet, remarkably, her current exhibition at Dundee’s Cooper Gallery is her first major solo show in a public institution. One of the reasons for this is that Copestake is a natural born collaborator, working as part of groups such as printmaking collective Poster Club and artist-band Muscles of Joy, rather than doggedly pursuing a singular vision.
There is a singular vision in her work, but it is one in which