This tapestry was inspired by the medieval tapestries I saw during my travels as a Winston Churchill Fellow and the medieval frescos I saw in Bulgaria. Many I saw depicted various Marys weeping over Christ but it occurred to me one would not be caught weeping in front of the murderers of one’s loved one, but as an accuser one would look back with dignity and a spine of oak. The idea had a personal resonance with me and this is the result, I as the weaver, and also a Mary (my middle name) gets to look out through them. The medieval images are known as the Lamentation of Christ, and I have called this The Lamentation as a nod to the original source.
This tapestry was inspired by the medieval tapestries I saw during my travels as a Winston Churchill Fellow and the medieval frescos I saw in Bulgaria. Many I saw depicted various Marys weeping over Christ but it occurred to me one would not be caught weeping in front of the murderers of one’s loved one, but as an accuser one would look back with dignity and a spine of oak. The idea had a personal resonance with me and this is the result, I as the weaver, and also a Mary (my middle name) gets to look out through them. The medieval images are known as the Lamentation of Christ, and I have called this The Lamentation as a nod to the original source.
This tapestry was inspired by the medieval tapestries I saw during my travels as a Winston Churchill Fellow and the medieval frescos I saw in Bulgaria. Many I saw depicted various Marys weeping over Christ but it occurred to me one would not be caught weeping in front of the murderers of one’s loved one, but as an accuser one would look back with dignity and a spine of oak. The idea had a personal resonance with me and this is the result, I as the weaver, and also a Mary (my middle name) gets to look out through them. The medieval images are known as the Lamentation of Christ, and I have called this The Lamentation as a nod to the original source.
Chrissie Freeth
Biography
As an archaeologist I have been interested in historical textiles for twenty years and first learned to weave on a warp-weighted loom as an undergraduate. Although I went on to earn a PhD, I gradually left academia to weave full-time. As my artistic practice developed the long view has remained crucial to my work. Thanks to a WCMT Fellowship, I travelled across Europe and to the US to study collections of medieval tapestries to better understand the techniques used by weavers at the zenith of tapestry production. I am an associate member of the APPG for craft and am a trustee of Heritage Crafts, a national charity that safeguards craft skills. I have exhibited at the Royal Academy, ARTAPESTRY6 and have been shortlisted for the Cordis Prize in tapestry.
I live and work in Saltaire in West Yorkshire, once a model village to house the workers of a colossal textile mill and now a thriving creative community and World Heritage Site. My studio is based in Saltaire but alas it is not usually open to the public but keep an eye on social media for open studio events.
Artists Statement
The loom has been central to the lives of women, and to storytelling, for millennia. My work continues this tradition transforming small personal moments, fragile memories, and unconfronted experiences into large-scale handwoven, contemporary tapestries. The discipline and time it takes to weave a tapestry, and the constraining nature of warp and weft, forms a creative and practical boundary, a place of freedom and safety to rebuild and face up to what would otherwise be left hidden and festering. I play with traditional iconography, symbolism and narrative, and I study the skills and form of pre-renaissance tapestries, when the medium existed in its own right rather than as an imitator of paintings. They remain a foundational inspiration and academic interest, although my work re-imagines them for modern relevance.
Selected Exhibitions and Events
2022 Beyond Words, Solo exhibition, Ripon Cathedral, North Yorkshire (Postponed from 2020)
2021 Cordis Prize, Inverleith House Gallery, Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh
2021 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
2021/2022 ARTAPESTRY6
ArtCentre Silkeborg Bad, Denmark, 16 January - 18 April 2021
Gulbene Municipal History and Art Museum, Latvia, 20 July - 1st October
Kulturcentrum Ronneby, Sweden, 13 November - 10 January 2022
SINKKA Art Museumat Kerava, Finland, 15 May - 30 September 2022
2018 Textile Art, Big Screen, City Park, Bradford, West Yorkshire
2017 Craven Arts Christmas Exhibition, Skipton, North Yorkshire
2017 Ilkley Arts Trail, Manor House, Ilkley, West Yorkshire
2017 Bradford Open, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford
2017 1in4 Art Exhibition, Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire
2016-2018 Lancashire and Yorkshire Craft Open, Platform Gallery, Clitheroe, Lancs
2016 Summer Show: Weave, Craft in the Bay, Cardiff
2015-2016, Crafted by Hand, Masham, North Yorkshire
2015-2019, 2021-2023 Art in the Pen, Skipton, West Yorkshire
2012-2018 Saltaire Arts Trail, Open Houses, Saltaire, West Yorkshire
Professional Experience
2018- current All Party Parliamentary Group for Craft
2017 Participated in EU funded project to explore rural crafts in Bulgaria
2016 Panelist, Axminster at Harewood, An Ethical Debate, Harewood House, West Yorkshire
2015- current Accepted onto the Crafts Council’s prestigious Directory of British Craftworkers
2015 Full member, Society of Designer Craftsmen
2014- current Trustee Heritage Crafts Association & Awards judge
2013-2015 Weaving Features Editor, Journal for Weavers, Spinners & Dyers
2013-2016 Features Writer, UK Handmade Magazine
2013-2014 Advisory Board, Stroud International Textiles
Residencies
2022 Artist in Residence, Ripon Cathedral, North Yorkshire
2014 Artist in Residence, National Trust, East Riddleson Hall, West Yorkshire
Awards
2021 Shortlisted for the Cordis Prize in Tapestry
2018 WCMT post travel grant
2017 Selectors Prize for Innovation, Platform Gallery
2016 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, Travelling fellowship enabling visits to France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and US to study “Exploring early European tapestries and their relevance to contemporary practice”
2014 Eaton Fund, for the purchase of a large George Maxwell tapestry loom
2014 Weavers Bazaar, provided frame looms for children’s activities during National Trust residency
Publications
Freeth, Chrissie 2022 Beyond Words: An Exhibition of Woven Tapestries, Ripon Cathedral
Freeth, Chrissie 2021 A Day in the Weave of........Chrissie Freeth Weavers Bazaar Newsletter, December
Freeth, Chrissie 2020 A Churchill Fellowship in Tapestry, Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, Spring Vol 273
Freeth, Chrissie 2018 Conversations with Medieval Weavers: Exploring early European tapestries and their relevance to contemporary practice, WCMT.
Freeth, Chrissie 2017 Interview with the Artists in Lasting Impressions by Claire Wellesley Smith and Hannah Lamb
Freeth, Chrissie 2015 Maides Coign Journal for Weavers Spinners and Dyers, Spring pp 8-9
Yashue, Mich 2014 Meet: Chrissie Freeth UK Handmade Magazine, Winter pp 84-93
Dale, Sharon 2013 Homespun Charms, Yorkshire Post Magazine, 27 April pp 37-40
Behrens, Lorain 2012 Chrissie Freeth How Do?!, August 2012 Issue 8 pp 37
Various appearances and mentions in local and national press including the Yorkshire Post and the Guardian
Education
University of Bradford, PhD Biocultural Anthropology, 1999 (Specific interest in archaeological textiles, had previously worked in textile-related museum)
University of Bradford, BSc (Hons) Archaeology, 1996
Since graduating I held a number of roles in the archaeology department at Bradford including administrative, lecturing, course management and for over a decade I was an Honorary Research Fellow.