The Fabric of Myth Guide 2.Indd

Compton Verney Warwickshire CV35 9HZ The Fabric of Myth T. 01926 645 500 Supported by www.comptonverney.org.uk Registered charity no.1032478 21 June – 7 September 2008 Gallery 1 Introduction 3 Resource Room The Fabric of Myth begins by exploring the significance of textiles in classical mythology. These myths shed light on the power of fabric to communicate universal themes 2 across time, from 400BC to the present day. 7 Ariadne’s thread unlocked the mystery of the labyrinth; Penelope’s loyalty to her husband Odysseus was tied to her loom as she wove and unwove by day

4 1 6 and night; the Three Fates controlled the lifespan of both men and gods by spinning yarn, drawing out thread and cutting it. These narratives have stood the test of time. From these classical beginnings The Fabric of Myth a 5 will trace the symbolic power of such characters and the Lift themes they represent. The figure of the mortal Arachne, t transformed into a spider for challenging the goddess Athena to a weaving contest, can be seen to represent Chinese Galleries Gallery 1 Ariadne’s thread an early embodiment of the artist. She in turn has ‘tis said the Labyrinth held a path woven... gone on to inspire artists such as Louise Bourgeois with a thousand ways and Elaine Reichek. Virgil, Aeneid The imprisoned Philomela from Ovid’s Metamorphoses turns to weaving to communicate her By giving the guiding thread to Theseus, Ariadne empowers plight. This theme resonates through the embroidery him in his dangerous journey into the labyrinth to slay the minotaur and return to safety. The thread maps out a journey of Mary Queen of Scots during her incarceration, and of protection and liberation. more recently in the work of Arthur Bispo Do Rosário, For Louise Bourgeois needle and thread become part of Ray Materson and Delaine Le Bas. a symbolic language. From her early background working in The fabric of myth continues to weave a symbolic tapestry restoration in France to her later career as an artist, path, and like the myths themselves, finds new the thread goes beyond everyday functionality and begins a relevance today. journey of transformation. Gallery 1 Gallery 1 Louise Bourgeois

Ariadne Ariadne is depicted after the Ariadne and Theseus Needle (Fuseau) Louise Bourgeois’ family worked armature and flax ready to be 5th century AD drama of the Cretan labyrinth and at the entrance to the 1992 in the Aubusson tapestry industry drawn out into thread suggest Woollen tapestry her subsequent abandonment Labyrinth Steel, flax, thread in France. From a young age future possibilities and the Kunsthistorisches Museum by Theseus. She has become the 1563 and wire Bourgeois herself carried out the potential to restore and remake. Wien, Antikensammlung consort of the god Dionysos and Image reproduced from Galerie Karsten Greve, repairs and redesign of antique This process forms a direct link Ovid, Metamorphoses wears his golden diadem. Cologne tapestries in the family’s workshop. to mythological weavers such as (ed. J. Spreng) Only fragments and traces This formative experience shaped Penelope whose weaving and Illustrated by Virgil Solis, of textile remain from Classical her artistic career. The needle and unweaving became a powerful Frankfurt am Main Greece. In contrast, the dry Woodcut, based on thread from her past have been creative and symbolic act. Egyptian sands have conserved an earlier woodcut by used to create a large body of many significant examples such as Bernard Salomon fabric sculptures and the themes this Coptic tapestry. The depiction The Bodleian Library, of sewing, spinning and weaving of Ariadne provides us with a link University of Oxford, can be seen to be carried through to the Classical Age. Its function Douce O 36, fol. 94r much of her work’s conceptual is uncertain: it may have been ideology. incorporated into a large tapestry Needle (Fuseau) symbolically hanging or attached to a garment links Bourgeois’ past with her own for ceremonial use. creativity. The needle’s dramatic Gallery 1 Edward Burne-Jones Gallery 2 and 3 Metamorphosis

Chaucer’s ‘Legend Burne-Jones was part of the Art Gallery), and also produced Metamorphosis is a consistent theme throughout classical of Good Women’ – Pre-Raphaelite movement, and a large-scale series of paintings mythology. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses both gods and mortals Ariadne and Lucretia was particularly interested in the based on the story of Sleeping are part of an unstable world which is constantly undergoing 1864 representation of myths. Ruskin is Beauty, known as The Legend of transformation. Arachne, challenging the goddess Athena to Sepia wash, over pencil said to have remarked that he had the Briar Rose (Buscot Park). on brown washed paper developed a command over ‘the Burne-Jones’ stylised pencil a weaving contest, is humbled and transformed into a spider. Birmingham Museums & entire range of Northern and Greek drawing is one of a series of Significantly the goddess and sorceress, Circe, weaves at Art Gallery mythology’. Like many of the seven studies, six of which were her loom at the same time as weaving plots to ensnare and other Pre-Raphaelites, Burne-Jones used for the bay window of the transform men. was also interested in depicting Combination Room at Peterhouse The mythic and magical power of thread also undergoes romantic evocations of legends. He College, Cambridge. Seen here metamorphosis: from Greek vase painting and illustrated would go on to work with William with Lucretia, Ariadne has been Morris’ workshop on a series of depicted with the ball of thread manuscripts, to embroidery and tapestry. In William Morris’ tapestries depicting The Holy that saves Theseus – an archetypal tapestry, The Woodpecker, both text and image have been Grail (Birmingham Museums and benevolent heroine. united in fabric form. Gallery 2 William Morris Gallery 2

The Woodpecker Morris’ design for this tapestry was woven by William Knight and Odysseus and Circe Most of our representations of his companions into swine and 1885 takes Ovid’s Metamorphoses as its William Sleath at Morris’ Merton 4th century BC weaving in the ancient world come is about to offer him a cup of Tapestry designed by inspiration. Circe again weaves her Abbey workshop. Boeotian (Cabirion) from the black and red figure drugged wine. Circe’s upright William Morris and woven magic in Ovid’s account of King Morris was not interested in black figure skyphos vases of Classical Greece. On this loom is of a type that had been by Morris & Company Picus, turned by the sorceress into mimicking the subtleties of paint (drinking vessel) drinking vessel associated with in existence since the late Bronze William Morris Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, a woodpecker for not returning her in tapestry form (as seen in the the cult of the Cabeiri at Thebes Age (1500BC). In the context of London Oxford amorous advances. Morris’ own Flemish tapestry opposite) and in Boeotia, eastern Greece, the Homer’s The Odyssey it exists both verse is woven into the tapestry reacted against the industrial sorceress Circe is weaving a as a familiar household object and scroll, revolution and designs woven robe and also a plot to ensnare a metaphor implying that Circe is on industrial looms. In his Odysseus. She has already turned also a weaver of magic. I once a King and chief lecture on The Lesser Arts of Life Now am the tree-bark’s thief, he vehemently referred to the Ever ‘twixt trunk and leaf Gobelins tapestry workshop in Chasing the prey Paris as reducing weaving from William Morris, Poems by the Way, 1891 fine art to an ‘upholsterer’s toy’. This tapestry is one of few to have He looked instead to medieval been designed solely by Morris examples for inspiration, and himself (apart from the birds which valued the authenticity of the were designed by Philip Webb). It weaver’s hand itself. Gallery 2 Elizabeth Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury

Europa and the Bull This panel depicts the story of This panel which has Bess of suggested this design, based as Europa and the Bull c.1580 Europa and the Bull from Ovid’s Hardwick’s ES monogram clearly it was on a woodcut after Bernard 1563 Embroidered panel Metamorphoses. Having fallen in embroidered into the design, was Salomon and published in Virgil From Ovid, Hardwick Hall, the love with Europa, the god Zeus most probably completed during Solis’ Latin version of Ovid’s Metamorphoses Devonshire Collection changed shape into a benevolent Mary Queen of Scots’ incarceration Metamorphoses, also exhibited (ed. J. Spreng) Illustrated by Virgil Solis, (acquired through the bull as part of her father’s herd within Bess’ household. For a here. National Land Fund Frankfurt am Main of cattle. Unsuspecting, Europa period of some fourteen years The embroidered panel would and transferred to The Woodcut, based on fell in love with the tame bull and Mary was under the charge of both have been used as a cushion National Trust in 1959) an earlier woodcut by is seen here being carried off to Bess and her husband George cover. To reflect Bess’ household, Bernard Salomon sea. This subject was one of the Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury. Europa and her attendants have The Bodleian Library, narratives illustrated by Arachne At first the two women were on been updated to wear the then University of Oxford, during her weaving contest with good terms and spent a large part contemporary style of dress, in Douce O 36, fol. 36r Athena (patron of the arts and of their time together devising contrast to the more diaphanous goddess of weaving) to highlight and completing needlework classical draperies depicted in the misdemeanours carried out by designs. Mary was more widely the manuscript illustration. the gods on mortals. read than Bess, and may well have Gallery 2 Gallery 2 Alice Kettle

Odysseus and Circe on This tapestry depicts two scenes tapestry suggests the composition Metamorphosis Metamorphosis forms part of a elements of the designs, building the island of Aeaea from Homer’s The Odyssey. The would have extended beyond 2003 series of works by Alice Kettle up tension within the fabric. This c.1550–1600 first scene, in the foreground, the reclining Circe to show her Embroidery entitled The Odyssey. These method produces pieces that defy Flemish Narrative Tapestry illustrates the arrival of Odysseus preparing a potion for Odysseus Private Collection works are directly inspired by the usual flat nature of fabric, and Jack & Linda Keenan, and his men on the island of with a maidservant. the characters and scenes within take on a sculptural dimension. Intaglio Antiques, Aeaea, inhabited by the goddess Mythological, historical and Homer’s epic. The work of Alice Metamorphosis hovers between San Antonio, Texas Circe. The second scene, in allegorical scenes were popular Kettle, formerly a painter, uses states of being and becoming, the background, depicts their themes for tapestries made for stitching in a free, painterly and can be seen to represent both departure by ship and subsequent secular use. This narrative tapestry manner. Largely machine made, the artist’s method of working encounter with the sirens, who was produced in Flanders, one of but with some hand stitching, the and the shifting states of Homer’s bewitched men by the sound of the great tapestry-weaving centres artist often works and reworks narrative and characters. their voices. in the West. Later, in the early Odysseus is here seen 17th century, the painter Rubens gesturing and drawing his sword settled in Antwerp and became a towards Circe, who is about to prominent figure in the tapestry work her magic. A number of trade – under his influence many Odysseus’ men have been turned classical and religious narratives into swine at the hands of the were commissioned as tapestries. goddess. Another version of this Gallery 3 Gallery 3

Arachne and Athena This manuscript depicts Ovid’s authority of the gods, and Ananse Textile Traditions converge in this batik weaving contest cautionary tale of hubris involving in the four corners of the c.1970 textile, produced in Manchester 1497 Arachne and the goddess Athena tapestry, the outcome of mortals Batik textile for the West African textile market. From The Collected (or Pallas as she is referred to who have challenged them. The Whitworth Art Gallery, Unlike Arachne, punished for Works of Ovid here). As Ovid recounts, Arachne, Arachne conversely depicts the University of Manchester her hubris, Ananse (Ananu in Illuminated manuscript the girl from Lydia, boasts of her misdemeanours of the gods Oji culture) the spider, trickster, Viscount Coke and the talent for weaving. She claims her including the stories of Europa and spinner of tales, sits within the Trustees of the Holkham skill rivals that of Athena (patron of the Bull and Leda and the Swan. centre of stars and moon, objects Estate the arts and goddess of weaving) Angered by her skill and the of his creation. and challenges the goddess to a scenes she chooses to depict, In Ashanti belief, Ananse is the contest. Athena strikes her with her shuttle. king of stories, controlling literally, Seen in the first panels of the In shame, Ovid tells us, Arachne a world-wide web of tales. illustration, Athena disguises herself attempts to hang herself but is as an old woman and advises spared by Athena who instead Arachne to reconsider her claim. transforms her into a spider. Here When she still refuses, Athena we see the body of the spider reveals her true identity to the girl, emerging from the withering dress and they begin the competition. of Arachne who is ultimately In Ovid’s description Athena caught in her own web, confined weaves scenes showing the to endless weaving. Gallery 3 Elaine Reichek Edward Burne-Jones

Sampler (Ovid’s Weavers) Working in a variety of forms – and Philomela in Ovid’s cuts out her tongue and imprisons Chaucer’s ‘Legend 1996 installation, photography, Metamorphoses. Philomela’s her in a hideaway. As Reichek’s of Good Women’ – Embroidery on linen embroidery and knitting – defiant and resourceful expression sampler pronounces, ‘desperation Thisbe and Philomela Collection of Melva Reichek’s work often explores the of grief is particularly apposite as can invent’ and weaving on a 1864 Bucksbaum and Raymond labours traditionally associated a symbol of female authorship in primitive loom, Philomela spells Pencil on toned paper Birmingham Museums & Learsy with women and explores how the face of adversity. out the letters that ‘denounce Art Gallery different cultures operate within In the Metamorphoses, Procne the savage crime’. Ultimately the modes of expression. (sister to Philomela) marries gods cast judgement over all By choosing an embroidered Tereus. After leaving her family to three characters. After Philomela sampler to reference two of Ovid’s begin her new life, Procne longs to and Procne feed Tereus his own most savage tales involving be with her sister again, and asks son, they are all turned into birds women, Reichek contrasts clichéd her husband to bring her home. – hence Reichek’s use of the bird female handiwork with a defiant On the journey back Tereus rapes as embroidered symbol. female voice. Ovid’s Weavers Philomela, and, in order to stop references the tales of Arachne her telling anyone of his crime, Gallery 3 Louise Bourgeois Gallery 3 William Holman Hunt

Spider Woman Just as Bourgeois has spoken of the role of maternal protector, The Lady of Shalott Hunt was one of the founders of window, a curse will fall upon her. 2004 the needle as a symbol of repair, who, like Arachne and Penelope, 1857 the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. As The scene depicted here shows the Drypoint on cloth her language in relation to the compulsively weaves and Relief print on paper, well as painting religious subjects curse being unleashed after she is Collection of the Artist, spider also describes a repairer. reweaves. Bourgeois’ spider engraved by J. Thompson and naturalistic scenes he also tempted to look out of the window courtesy Harlan & Weaver, sculptures are often titled ‘maman’ Tate, presented by Harold based a number of works on at the knight, Sir Lancelot, whom I came from a family of repairers. New York and can be seen nurturing future Hartley, 1925 poems such as Keats’ The Eve of she has heard singing below. The spider is a repairer. If you offspring. Spiders do act as St Agnes and Tennyson’s The Lady Caught in her own web, the bash into the web of a spider, predators, however, overshadowing of Shalott. This etching was based Lady of Shalott can be seen to she doesn’t go mad. She weaves architectural cells containing the on a painting which was one of take on the characteristics of and repairs it. tapestry fragments which, like the artist’s last major works. Arachne – punished for her actions Louise Bourgeois Needle (Fuseau), lead back to Tennyson’s poem describes and irrevocably trapped in the In this way the spider takes on the artist’s past. the Lady of Shalott weaving a web weaving of her own plot. In this from within a castle on a hill. She way, both characters form a direct weaves the view of Camelot which link to the Three Fates of Ancient is shown to her through a mirror. Greece, whose actions are linked If she looks directly out of the to destiny. Gallery 4 Henry Moore

Three Fates The Three Fates or Moirai exercised which were based on drawings by 1983–84 supreme control over the lives of Moore and commissioned by the Tapestry woven by both mortals and gods in Greek artist and his family. The drawings Pat Taylor and Fiona mythology. They were Klotho the were interpreted by weavers at Abercrombie maiden who spins the thread of the West Dean Tapestry Studio ...but there in the future Cotton warp, linen and life, Lachesis the matron who in West Sussex. The drawing on wool weft allots its length, and Atropos the which the tapestry was based is The Henry Moore he shall endure all that his destiny and the heavy Spinners crone who cuts the life-thread. In an example of Moore’s ‘sectional Foundation, acquired 1984 spun for him with the thread at his birth... Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus’ line’ technique which used line, fate is bound by the Three Fates rather than light and shade, to Homer, The Odyssey who have spun his destiny at his delineate form. The Three Fates birth. tapestry was woven by Pat Taylor The Three Fates was one of and Fiona Abercrombie, and took an initial series of eight tapestries eighteen months to complete. Gallery 4 Clothbound

In Classical Greece women conducted their domestic lives In the wrapped objects and cocoons of Judith Scott we in the gynaikonitides (women’s quarters). For Penelope, this see work produced after thirty-six years of institutionalisation. realm became a place of strategy where she found expression Despite being offered alternatives, Judith chose her materials at her loom. Likewise Philomela, imprisoned by Tereus, weaves from studio detritus. From discarded objects she transformed her plight on a loom under lock and key. The Fabric of Myth her life. examines the idea of confinement as a catalyst for creativity All the work on display in this gallery aspires to reach in fabric form. beyond the confined space of its production. In Bispo Do Often those who create in institutionalised circumstances Rosário’s Presentation Cape we see the cloak in which he do not perceive themselves as artists and utilise materials would present himself to his creator on Judgement Day. All from unconventional sources. Ray Materson, serving a long of Bispo’s work is addressed to the eternal, reaching upwards, prison term in the USA, constructed his embroidered life offering the salvaged objects of this world to the next. story from the lowliest of materials, recycled socks. Bispo Do Leonid Tishkov’s Divers from Heaven, on the other Rosário, interned in a psychiatric hospital, transformed his hand, reaches down to us. With their helmets and breathing surroundings into a studio, sourcing his materials from the tubes constructed from scraps of old material found after his objects around him and the threads of hospital uniforms. mother’s death, the air the divers breathe is different from The imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots, found expression in that of our material world. embroidering images of her life and the possibility of freedom. Gallery 4 Mary Queen of Scots Elizabeth Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick)

Confined to a life under constant signifying the passing of time and The Oxburgh Hangings, The Oxburgh Hangings, The Oxburgh Hangings, scrutiny in the Hardwick household initialled by Bess of Hardwick, may Monkey Motif Dog Motif Dandelion Motif and severely restricted in her letter have been created by Mary and c.1570 c.1570 c.1570 writing, Mary devoted herself to was probably conceived under her Linen canvas embroidered Linen canvas embroidered Linen canvas embroidered embroidery. Needlework was a guidance. Initials often signified with silk, edged with with silk, edged with with silk, edged with gold tissue and mounted gold tissue gold tissue and mounted primary means of communicating ownership rather than authorship. on velvet Victoria and Albert on velvet her predicament as well as The portrait of her pet dog, Jupiter, Victoria and Albert Museum, presented by Victoria and Albert providing intellectual stimulation. brings us close to the tragic Museum, presented by the Art Fund Museum, presented by Mary sourced many of her queen. At her execution, a small the Art Fund the Art Fund images from books of engravings dog ran out from under her skirts such as Gesner’s Icones Animalium and placed itself between her (1560) and adapted them to suit severed head and torso. her needs. The dandelion motif, Gallery 4 Ray Materson

These miniature embroideries were a coffee container into a sewing The House on York Road First Cigarette Don’t Get Pulled In The Trailer Visit created from the recycled thread of hoop, procured a needle from a 1994 1992 1992 1994 old socks. co-operative guard and began Embroidery Embroidery Embroidery Embroidery Serving a lengthy prison to create the story of his life in Collection of William Collection of Collection of Peter Collection of William term for drug-related crime, Ray thread. Louis-Dreyfus Sandi Blanda S. Brams, New York Louis-Dreyfus Materson had few materials at His story recounts his his disposal. He traded a pack struggles with the law, drug abuse, Once a Young Man School Daze Tiny: Life x 6, The Noon Metamorphosis III of cigarettes for a pair of old imprisonment and his subsequent (Dad in Central Park) 1992 Watch J2 2007 socks, converted the plastic lid of redemption and transformation. 1996 Embroidery 1997 Embroidery Embroidery Collection of William Embroidery Private collection Collection of William Louis-Dreyfus Collection of William Louis-Dreyfus Louis-Dreyfus Gallery 4 Judith Scott Gallery 4 Arthur Bispo Do Rosário

Untitled The meaning of these objects can until, by chance, she came upon Manto da Apresentação Bispo Do Rosário envisioned the embroidered with memories of 1990 only be imagined. Judith Scott was a mound of discarded yarn. From (Presentation Cape) imminent apocalypse of mankind. his life as a sailor, boxer and Cane, bent wood, born with Down’s syndrome and that moment, until her death in Date Unknown His role was to gather the things handyman. cotton rug yarn was separated abruptly from her 2006, Judith became engaged in Fabric, thread, paper of human experience and present His ultimate creation, taking Collection Irish Museum family and twin sister at the age of a concentrated, compulsive and and metal them before God on Judgement decades to complete, is his of Modern Art, on loan Collection Museu seven. She spent the next thirty- ceaseless creative activity uniquely Day. Presentation Cape. This robe was from the Musgrave Kinley Bispo Do Rosário Arte six years of her life in a series of her own. This took the form of Confined to a psychiatric adorned with the names of all the Outsider Art Collection Contemporânea, bleak institutional settings. binding and enclosing various hospital in Rio de Janeiro for fifty people he knew in his life, images prefeitura da cidare do In 1986, her sister regained found objects, which ranged from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil years, Bispo collected the detritus of places seen and imagined, Untitled custody of her sibling and Judith small things (like car keys) to of everyday life. Old hospital embroidered versions of objects 1990 was offered the possibility to use items her own size. Once each uniforms were unravelled to he created. Bispo’s intention was Yarn the studio at Creative Growth in cocoon-like form was complete provide the blue thread that would to literally wrap the world around Collection Irish Museum Oakland, California. After so many Judith moved on to the next and become his writing and drawing himself in his role as a witness for of Modern Art, on loan years without creative stimuli showed no interest in the fate material. Sheets and blankets mankind when he stood before from the Musgrave Kinley Judith remained indifferent to all of its predecessor. The creative were transformed into banners God. Outsider Art Collection the visual media presented to her process was all-important. Gallery 4 Leonid Tishkov

Uma Obra Tão Importante Cama de Romeu e Julieta Navios de Guerra Divers from Heaven Utilising old photographs and Que Levou Anos Para Ser (The Bed of Romeo and (Battleships) 2005–2006 scraps of fabric found after his Escrita... Juliet) Date Unknown Textile and photographs mother’s death, Tishkov’s Divers (A Work So Important It Date Unknown Wood, cloth, metal, Courtesy of the Artist From Heaven refers to the future Took Years to Write...) Wood, fabric, metal, thread and plastic of man in cosmic creation, as 1986 thread and foam Collection Museu expressed in the writing of the Wood, fabric, metal, Collection Museu Bispo Do Rosário Arte radical spiritual thinker, Nikolai thread and plastic Bispo Do Rosário Arte Contemporânea, Fyodorov (1829–1903). Fyodorov Collection Museu Contemporânea, prefeitura da cidare do Bispo Do Rosário Arte prefeitura da cidare do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil speaks of a time when ‘...the Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil earth will begin to give back prefeitura da cidare do those whom it has swallowed Rio de Janeiro, Brasil up and will people the heavenly starry worlds with them’. (Nikolai Feodorov: What was man created for? Lausanne 1990) Gallery 5 Weaving Memory

We saw, as unperceived we took our stand, suitors were alerted to her plot by one of her handmaids The backward labours of her faithless hand and she was forced to finish her work. One of the suitors,

Homer, The Odyssey Amphimedon, described the final woven shroud as gleaming ‘like the sun or moon’ – a description which mirrors the The character of Penelope in Homer’s The Odyssey has method of the shroud’s production. remained a constant source of fascination for both artists This capacity for fabric to take on the circumstances of and scholars. its creation and communicate across time goes beyond the While her husband Odysseus was away fighting in printed page. Contemporary artists can be seen to appropriate the Trojan War, Penelope was beset by suitors who tried ancient textile traditions to new effect. Leonid Tishkov creates to convince her of his death and her consequent need to a mythical being from both his family’s textile history and the remarry. In order to ward off these advances, Penelope traditions of his homeland in the Urals. devised a strategy to weave and unweave a shroud for her Delaine Le Bas’ installation Gynaikonitides (Women’s father-in-law Laertes, telling the suitors she would remarry Quarters) references Penelope’s private domain as the once the garment was complete. place where she was forced to defend herself against her All day she remained in the women’s quarters weaving, suitors and devise her strategy of weaving and unweaving. while at night she unpicked the threads at her loom. The As a territory of female captivity, defence and creativity, Gallery 5

Gynaikonitides also evokes the narratives of Arachne and Penelope Surprised Penelope is caught unravelling to Rome in the early 1790s. The Philomela at the same time as finding relevance in society by the Suitors King Laertes’ shroud. While Iliad and The Odyssey were read 1805 today. Odysseus was away fighting the as sources of cultural ideals to From Homer’s, Trojan War she was beset by be imitated. Flaxman believed the Just as Penelope symbolically weaves her own plot, she The Odyssey suitors, and, in order to fend artist’s role was ‘to convert the Engraved from also retains the memory of Odysseus by doing so. Similarly, them off, promised she would beauty and grace of ancient poetry the compositions artists have used fabric as a powerful retainer of both choose a new husband once she to the service of the morals and of John Flaxman personal and cultural memory and as a means of highlighting had completed her father-in-law’s establishments of our own time Illustrated manuscript their absence. Fellows of Brasenose funeral shroud. By day she would and country’. College, Oxford weave, but by night she would His aesthetic was one of unravel her loom. We see her here purity and clean lines. In fact, confronted by the suitors and the the private chamber of a queen handmaiden who has betrayed her. would have been rich in colour Flaxman began his illustrations and the shroud woven by of Homer while on a pilgrimage Penelope, intricately patterned. Penelope Date unknown Embroidered picture of silk and thread Marx Lambert Collection, Compton Verney Gallery 5 Leonid Tishkov Gallery 5 Shane Waltener

The Vyazanik Inspired by his ancestral history, homeland, for knitting rugs out Destiny Threads which spell out the word these cards are rotated a woven (The Knitling) Tishkov asked his mother to of hand-me-downs to preserve 2008 of the title span a space between band is formed. This method of 2002 unravel and then re-work the the memory of the deceased and Wool, playing cards, two chairs, the now empty seats weaving stretches back over two Textile, photograph, film garments of his family’s past protect their kinsfolk. The Knitling chairs of the protagonists needed for thousand years through North Courtesy of the Artist into one, all-encompassing, acts as a cocoon of memory, which Courtesy of the Artist the creation of this work. While Africa, Europe and Asia. Practised crocheted swaddling suit. Each when worn, transports the artist referencing the woven destiny of by people including nomadic band of fabric conveys a personal into a timeless world of family Penelope and the Three Fates who tribes in Turkey, Burmese monks narrative written alongside it (see ties and cultural traditions. The allot the lifespan of both mortals and medieval ladies at Court, accompanying gallery leaflet for suit has been transformed by its and gods by apportioning lengths this lineage weaves its own path translation). method of production into what of thread, the work draws us into through religious vestments, The suit encompasses the the artist refers to as ‘a new the imagined actions of its makers, national costumes and inscribed tradition in the Urals, Tishkov’s mythical creature’. and the echoes of their destiny love tokens. The simplicity of which they are now living out. the technique is often lost in Destiny also carries with it the density and intricacies of the echoes of the ancient method the finished piece, as if the final of tablet weaving. By attaching message or intent has overtaken yarn to a set of cards or flat its production. tablets, a loom is made, and when Gallery 6 Delaine le Bas Gallery 7 Annie Whiles

Gynaikonitides And what should Philomela do? The Moment Ago Annie Whiles’ embroidery captures 2008 A guard prevents her flight; stout 2004 the shifting states of characters Mixed Media walls of solid stone fence her in Embroidery silks, canvas, as they undergo change or Courtesy Sonia Rosso and the hut; speechless lips can give velvet, felt and hair metamorphosis. Expressions which Galerie Git Nourbakhsch no token of her wrongs. But grief Courtesy Danielle Arnaud are often fleeting are held frozen in has sharp wits, and in trouble Contemporary Art time and commemorated through cunning comes. She hangs a an emblematic language and form. Thracian web on her loom, and Although Whiles’ designs reference Hover Boys skilfully weaving purple signs on everyday contemporary culture – 2002 a white background, she thus tells Embroidery silks, satin, travel badges and insignias – their the story of her wrongs. felt and canvas detailed and laborious method of Ovid, Metamorphoses Courtesy Danielle Arnaud production evokes the pastimes of Contemporary Art another age. Gallery 7 Tilleke Schwarz Gallery 7 Joseph Beuys

Losing our Memory Losing our Memory looks at ideas Her embroidery picks up Felt Suit For Beuys the material of felt by Tartars who took his freezing, 1998 of contemporary communication many webs of communication by 1970 carried with it associations of unconscious body into safety and Hand embroidery on linen and a loss of cultural memory as casting out a net which catches Felt sculpture spiritual warmth and insulation. treated him by rubbing his body Courtesy of the Artist a result. The artist has spoken extracts from our lives in a stream Scottish National Gallery This work was modelled on one of with animal fat and wrapping him about the ‘myth of communication’ of consciousness. Images and text of Modern Art, purchased the artist’s own suits, and can be in their traditional felt blankets. in a society where we feel we combine, as everyday phrases with assistance from seen as a material embodiment or After he returned home he the National Heritage are somehow more connected become significant epithets for self-portrait of the artist. fell into a depression in which Memorial Fund and – by phone, on the internet – but the loss of cultural memory and Felt Suit can also be seen to he worked out the principles of The Art Fund 2002 actually less in touch and more the ‘hidden crisis of the digital represent the legend or myth of his art. From that moment he estranged. information age’. the artist. Beuys reportedly came turned towards new materials, close to death while flying his often working in felt or fat, which Stuka after joining the Luftwaffe he introduced as ‘shamanistic in 1944. After his plane fell out of initiatory features’. the sky, he was miraculously saved Gallery 7 Michele Walker Resource Room

Memoriam Memoriam references the artist’s the known to the unknown. The Hăp’tĭk is an interactive This interactive cabinet relies on 2002 mother and her struggle with use of unconventional materials interpretation of The Fabric of the sense of touch to encourage Textile, plastic, Alzheimer’s disease. Memoriam to produce a quilt subverts the Myth exhibition. This resource further understanding through steel wire wool is sewn with the imprint of the traditional, comforting functionality space project is the result of a the textures and materials inside. Courtesy of the Artist artist’s own skin through layers of such an object would usually partnership between Compton Hăp’tĭk also spins the clear plastic and wire wool. The represent. The quilt that would Verney and Buckinghamshire narratives found throughout the trace of the imprint appears in a normally be passed down through New University. Exhibition Design exhibition and traces the history, metallic grey, the antithesis of skin generations, retaining memory, students were invited to submit evolution and use of fabric; in both colour and texture, and has instead become a shrine to proposals that encapsulated presenting objects which invite therefore suggestive of the fading its loss. the exhibition in a creative and closer inspection and participation. of memory and a transition from dynamic manner. Hăp’tĭk was This project was made chosen as the winning proposal by possible with support from final year student Emma Kopinska. Cotswold Woollen Mill, Filkins Hăp’tĭk refers to the Greek and West Dean Tapestry Studio, word for the science of touching. West Sussex. Events

Lecture: myth was used to offer cautionary Coats. Knitting novices needn’t fear Louise Bourgeois ‘Stitches in Time’ tales or to present models of worthy as expert tuition will be available Sunday 6th July 1pm behaviour, reflecting the essential throughout the weekend. truths of human life Frances Morris, Head of Collections 70-minute programme, screening (International Art) at Tate Modern, Tickets £12, concs £8.50 includes continuously from midday until 4pm examines the language of sewing gallery admission. Members £5 and weaving which permeates the Panel Discussion: life and art of Louise Bourgeois Knitflicks Film Weekend Text and Textile Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 July Sunday 7th September 1pm Tickets £12, concs £8.50 includes 12 noon–4pm gallery admission. Members £5 Join co-curators of The Fabric of Myth 7 Inch Cinema return to Compton Antonia Harrison and James Young; Lecture: Verney with another weekend of anthropologist Chloe Colchester; Images of Myth in Ancient Rome celluloid treats and hands-on wool Fashion Design tutor Heather Sproat; Sunday 13 July 1pm action. All of the short films on show and Classics lecturer Sue Blundell share a certain crocheted or hand- as they discuss the relationships Dr Zahra Newby, Senior Lecturer stitched quality: from the beguiling between textiles, myths and art. in Classics at Warwick University, imaginary worlds of Michel Gondry explores the ways in which stories Tickets £12, concs £8.50 includes to classic hand-knitted animation from Greek mythology were gallery admission. Members £5 and the Cast Off collective’s death- portrayed in the art of Ancient Rome. defying knitting cyclist. You can Focusing on the figures of Arachne, even get to work on some socks Fully illustrated catalogue on The Ariadne and others, she will explore while you watch thanks to a kind Fabric of Myth available in the shop the ways in which the flexibility of donation of needles and wool by priced £14.99 Cover image Shane Waltener Destiny (detail) Designed by Rose-Innes Associates / Printed by The Bridge Press