Leeds Central Library, Corridor
outside the Art Library
August 2012
The
Leeds Tapestry is a 16 panel community arts project that depicts the story of
Leeds life both past and present. It was
embroidered to celebrate the millennium.
The
work was facilitated by Leeds textile artist Kate Russell, who was inspired by
a quote from Lewis Hydes’ book The Gift’: "Art that matters to people,
delights the senses, moves the heart, revives the soul and offers courage for
living".
The
tapestry was 10 years in the making and completed in 2002. Many, many men,
women and children contributed their time and skills to making this montage of
Leeds life. I found the corridor where
the tapestry was hung to be an uninspiring place; simply a passage really and
I found it hard to see some of the work because it was so high up. Quite how you get over the height issue I’m
not sure because these pieces are BIG. Each of the 16 panels measures 2.4
metres x 1.5 metres (8’ x 3’ 6").
Each panel represents different subject matter drawn from the community
including Education, Health, Transport, the Environment, Textile and Industrial
Heritage, Local Faces and Leeds in Bloom.
| The textile panel |
All of
the panels are extremely busy with the maximum amount of visual information incorporated. This makes Leeds seem a very vibrant place to
live. Some panels like Enterprise and
Local Faces use perspective, most don’t.
There
was every textile technique imaginable in the work; collage, hand and machine
embroidery and image transfer that I’ve yet to try. This was used to depict identifiable people
of local renown. Photographs were
transferred to fabric and the rest of the image was usually embroidered.
I’m starting to find that the unsung
embroiderer is extraordinary in the skill level they possess. The work on show was exquisite both in the
stitching and the level of design detail.
My benchmark to date is whether I’m convinced by the depiction of
fabric. If I am then I’m totally on
board with the work. I have found fabric
represented in stone and more recently in this exhibition and the work of Karolina
Szymkiewicz displayed close by. I find
it amazing that I can be so persuaded that I’m surprised when I touch that it’s
not fabric. This was very much so with
Henry Moore’s Reclining Nude At the Yorkshire Sculpture Park earlier this
year.
I found
the exhibition place unwelcoming and because of this I didn’t linger as I might
have elsewhere. There was a lot more to
learn from this work than I actually took away.
Perhaps this is because there was so much; maybe being exposed to a
panel a day would be a better way to approach it.
The tapestry was part of a two day break where we saw other things as
well so maybe there was a bit of overload around.
I’m finding it hard to offer any sort
of critique on what I see because I feel that my position right now is very ill
informed; I’m very much at the beginning of things. However I’m learning lots and maybe that’s
what it’s about just now.
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