Corporate tapestries come to life

Press, 14 January 1987, Page 27

Corporate tapestries come to life

and ° f mw4Hn? IP tSa£S room running th* whole of its length. Here a team of seven people work on modern, vivid tapestries, using new techniques with others that have been practised tor thousands of years. They belong to the Edinburgh Tapestry Company — housed In the Dovecot Studios. One of the most recent commissions is a . huge project of 11 tapestries — each about X metres square -— made with the American artist, Frank Stella, for the Pepsi-Coia Corporation’s headquarters in New York. The commission began with one tapestry, which would lead to a series if Frank Stella approved of the work. The director, Joanne Soroka, remembers the artist’s first visit to see the initial tapestry. “He came over in December, I think it was the shortest day. It was .pouring with rain. The light was absolutely abysmal. We just couldn’t see.” He liked the tapestry but was worried about the colour of the border. He and the whole team looked at reels of slightly different tones of offwhite yam to find the right one. Looking at the same colours of yam even on a bright , day, there was no sign of contrast in the reels, but the artists and weavers had seen it in the tapestry and this prompted them to virtually dismantle the piece and re-weave it The Dovecot Studies were established by weavers trained at William Morris’ Merton Abbey, and combine respect for tradition with Scottish romanticism and feeling for contemporary art and life. The present weavers have used the computer-generated drawings of Harold Cohen, made in brilliantly coloured inks, and discovered that they lend themselves perfectly to tapestry. ■; ■■ '

* ' wJgsa < ’W.' > f ' W, 1 s ’ ?4ro, SSe . kinds of sources— photoMneair drawing; or Their skill is without limit, their imagtoAtton vividly apparent Dovecot has also begun to make ■constructed textiles. For the Bsso refinery in Fife, Scotland, it nylon three-dimensional structures that would fill a huge space and yet still let in the light Joanne , Soroka explained: “We- want to be at the forefront of what is going bn in- the textile world. Tapestry is always our main concern and if it’s right tor the building then fine, but if we thtok something else is more f appropriate, then that's what we will do.” ; The 11 Pepsi-Cola tapestries are titled Had Gadya,” (“One Small Goaf) and are based on a Hebrew children’s story. The patterns are geometric and rhythmic. Harry Wright, now head weaver, explained the significance of technique in achieving this. “It is allimportant The Stella tapestries have a very intricate grid of light greys. The designs are woven in a traditional flat style, but with a difference. ( “We always By to use a balance of old ways and new. depending on what we feel is required. Here it is really the mastery of interpreting the works of another artist, not just Stella d. teokrt rtam to?daj£ and days on end, until we absorbed the feeling of the design. Joanne asked us tor opinions, and naturally there was a flood of ideas. Generally there’s complete collaboration, as there should be. between weavers on the loom and Joanne as artistic director,” he said. “Art has got to be a surprise. When you see ES&S to us, and indeed everyone else.”,.—London Press Service