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
Grete and Pitious
2020
Cotton warp, hand-dyed woollen weft
1.20m x 1.55m
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Two heiress sisters married two brothers in the fifteenth century. Their grandmother says they were abducted amongst much weeping and "grete and pitious" lamentation but academic reading of the situation suggests they eloped. One went on to have 19 children (a good job as I am descended from one of them) and the other had none. I have long wanted to weave one of the sisters willing to elope and one unwilling to reflect both interpretations of the story, and as ideas developed it seemed this story was a good allegory for Brexit, one of the sisters wanting to go, the other weeping figure does not but has no choice.
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The brexit voter on left, cocky, defiant, bridal, symbolising a new start, but the branches of her skirt are budless and barren. Her dress has styalised birds to contrast with the real one as a reflection of the false promises vs the real benefits, and gems fall through fingers, the cultural, economic, political wealth gone. There are 12 jewels to represent the 12 stars on EU flag. On the right the remainer wears blue star shaped flowers also referencing the flag and there are 27. She also holds a thistle for scotland and the threat of the EU breaking up. The dove of peace she holds now looks away from us, representing the post war peace the EU enabled and also the internal conflict we are now riddled with. The two figures are linked, being dragged by the other.