Artist Statement
Viv Davy June 2014
TAPESTRY
For
the greater part of my life I have been obsessed with manipulating thread into
woven forms. These have ranged from conventional woven yardages and rugs
through to more abstract expressions as seen in my tapestry work.
I am
drawn back repeatedly to working in tapestry which is an ancient, timeless,
technically strict and rigid medium, to convey highly abstracted and organic
expressions. I try with every piece I create to challenge the conventional
boundaries not only of tapestry as a physical medium, but also an emotional
expression.
Historically
tapestry has been used to narrate stories or fables about communities, to
record events and to replicate pictorial images. For me, tapestry is a way to
uncover my soul to the world. My pieces talk about my emotional voyage as a
woman - a sister, a mother a wife, a daughter, a lover, a sole person, an
immigrant, an emigrant, a traveller. My joys and pains, my insights are
recorded here in thread, in a tangible form for all to see.
My
ideas are developed on paper, then slowly, thread by thread, are woven into
their forms as tapestry. The way the colours can be controlled by various
placement and blending techniques fascinates me as well as the creation of
texture by thread.
Over
the years the straight-edged, rectangular shapes of traditional tapestry have
had to become organic and flowing to allow my emotional content the appropriate
form. This has seen my technical focus concentrate on shaping and moulding
techniques with inclusions.
What
starts as a very 2-dimensional image enlarges as it becomes a tapestry image
into something with far more depth and this enhances the emotive impact.
The
making of the tapestry is a slow, gentle, thoughtful process and I feel this
creates a gravitas around the final work.
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