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
They Alone Could Hear
2020
Cotton warp, hand-dyed woollen weft
69 cm x 65 cm
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Beyond the odd sample, I don’t usually weave small tapestries. As a medium it works best on a large scale and that is where I am most comfortable. But with the closure of exhibitions and galleries during 2020 I realised I would have to adapt and become more online friendly. 2020 also saw me becoming obsessed with a body of folk tales and I found myself writing again, something I had not done for years. These new tales and poems are the basis for work going forward, they have provided a buffer to explore personal stories that are too raw for me to explore directly. I have no intention of sharing them, they are just a tool, but these two tapestries are the first to come out of them. I loved the role textiles had as a secondary narrative within the original tales and have wanted for a goodly while to do a story in a textile in a story in a textile and again this made its way into these tapestries.