Picking Up the Thread: A Landmark Tapestry Exhibition Comes to Plymouth’s Market Hall
Ahead of the British Tapestry Group’s 20th Anniversary exhibition arriving at Market Hall Devonport from Monday 2 March to Wednesday 18 March, arts reporter and designer Victoria Lammie sat down to explore what promises to be a standout national touring show.
Featuring work by 69 artists from nine countries and more than 90 individual tapestries, Picking Up the Thread: The Past, Present and Future of Tapestry brings together a remarkable range of contemporary practice.
Victoria spoke with Paulette Furnival, Chair of the British Tapestry Group, and Becky Dodman-Wainwright, weaver, co-curator and MA Co Course Leader at Arts University Plymouth, to hear more about the exhibition and its journey so far.
Launched in Dumfries, Southern Scotland, the exhibition now arrives in Plymouth as part of its national tour, offering audiences a rare chance to experience the depth, diversity and future-facing ambition of tapestry today.
Sara Trist ‘Timescape’ - Photograph S.Trist
One of my first questions to Paulette is to tell me about the British Tapestry Group and her role with them?
“The British Tapestry Groups began in 2005 with five tapestry weavers who met around a kitchen table to liaise more closely and support each other. It’s a rather niche interest and twenty years ago universities stopped delivering weaving courses and as a result it was starting to die. So this small group of people decided to set up the BTG and they organised a couple of exhibitions one of which was funded by The Arts Council and now the group has grown from just five people to almost four hundred, one hundred of those members are outside of the UK. We have members in every continent except for Africa and South America”. Paulette and I go on to talk about how incredible this is and she tells me how the group is held in quite high regard with people wanting to join.
“We provide a network by having regional groups. Not every area has one. It really depends who is willing to support this voluntary organisation. The regional groups raise awareness, often hold exhibitions, run meetings, carry out teaching sessions and have zoom calls with other groups to catch up and to see what’s going on. There's a central committee and I’m currently the Chair. We have a monthly newsletter, a social media team and also publish ‘Tapestry Weaver Magazine’ which comes out twice a year in print. We have our own website and run exhibitions every couple of years.
Pauline explains ‘tapestry weaving is where you create the warp which are the vertical lines and then you weave across the weft which is very often wool, but any material goes these days! Tapestry weaving is weft faced and discontinuous so your threads may go part way and then you have another thread coming in another direction and that's how you form the images. Tapestry doesn’t have to be flat, in the exhibition we have 3D freestanding pieces and ones literally coming off the wall. The exhibition is so vibrant!”.
Your travelling show ‘Picking Up The Thread: The Past, Present and Future of Tapestry is coming to Plymouth In March. I’d love to hear about the exhibition and why you chose Plymouth?
“The Market Hall team has been great and really helpful: It’s challenging hanging an exhibition in a grade 2 listed building.
We normally have small exhibitions where we might get thirty or forty entries because people do their work but don’t always feel confident exhibiting it. This time due to it being our twentieth anniversary we thought, "Let's think big and make it a big event”. We decided to have a proper jury and we asked three internationally known tapestry weavers Joan Baxter, Fiona Hutchinson and Caron Penny. This gave the exhibition some standing, which is, I think, why we had so many entries. I hoped we’d get around fifty people applying but we ended up with almost two hundred entries. The exhibition consists of sixty nine artists and ninety four pieces ranging from one to two metres and everything in between on the walls”.
Lee Jenner ‘Creative Flow’ - Photograph L. Jenner
Becky Dodmanwainwright is co curating the exhibition with you. What's your connection?
“I think it all started when she joined the BTG. We like to welcome people and I emailed her and she told me she worked with textiles at Arts University in Plymouth and I thought that was really interesting!’ Paulette then goes on to explain how she couldn’t have done the exhibition without Becky. She tells me that Becky is so very well connected within the city which makes a massive difference when you are trying to plan an exhibition.
It’s really great to chat to you Becky, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
‘I’ve been a lecturer at Arts University Plymouth for almost fourteen years. Before this I was a youth worker out in the community and also a careers advisor. After having my daughter I had a career change and I did a fashion degree at AUP, and I enjoyed sharing knit skills. I then went on to do a diploma in Knitting and AUP asked me to go back and teach the technicians and further to this they asked me to try out some lecturing. I ended up staying and the rest as they say is history! I was a lecturer on the Fashion Design degree courses for seven years and the past seven years lecturing in textiles now I’m co course leader for the MA.
I’m also a study skills specialist in my pockets of free time. I do some freelance work where I help people with ADHD and Autism maximise their opportunities that universities present to them.
My own practice is weaving. I have a studio practice. I do try and have Sundays off!.Over the years I’ve become less interested in focusing on the body but more interested with my textiles practice which explores building stories. Every spare moment I have I like to weave. I’m a fast person, weaving is a slow process and it’s good for me to have this slow time. Tapestry is my most popular choice because you can build a story, line by line creating these words which is just amazing. I make looms and anything I can turn my hands to! I like to be busy!”.
Becky Dodmanwainwright ‘Spring Tea’ - Photograph B. Dodmanwainwright
How important do you feel travelling exhibitions are to the local community and the universities?
What's really fantastic is it just opens up Plymouth as being part of a wider national touring arts scene. Despite tapestry being quite niche it does have an international audience. There are the American and Australian tapestry weaver groups and they are internationally connected which we think are really important. For an exhibition that starts in Edinburgh but doesn’t finish in Plymouth it then goes on to Ely Cathedral The locations are remarkable. For national touring exhibitions to see Plymouth as an exciting place to be, for me that feels really good! Also with all that's going on at The Box like the Grayson Perry and Beryl Cook and the other shows that are coming up. So for the university to be involved in it I think it’s integral we’re an Arts Institution and we’ve got very close links with Market Hall and The Box both institutions feed into our MA programme and equally into our undergraduate programmes too. This is a city that isn’t about competition, this is a city that's about support. As a city we work very hard to make things happen. In terms of Plymouth “bidding for” City of Culture, it is exciting we are supporting national exhibition spaces and touring shows already in the city. The show will highlight why tapestry is important and how beautiful the artistry is and that it represents such a broad spectrum of people across the world’.
Finally I ask Becky What's Next?
‘I have an upcoming show in March at Field System in Ashburton. I’m also co curating a textile design show in Totnes with an ex-colleague. I’m taking part in a staff show at AUP exploring local natural dyes that we have grown in our natural dye gardens and I’m weaving a piece for this. I’m really active!’.
I take great pleasure in finding out from Paulette just what the art of ‘Tapestry Weaving’ is. The travelling exhibition sounds incredible and I for one cannot wait to visit!
Becky’s enthusiasm and sheer love of weaving exuberate through our conversation. Her passion to drive and support these national travelling shows is wonderful to experience. Not only is she a dedicated member of the British Tapestry Group, but she’s also an integral part of making the show happen right here in Plymouth.
