December 2003, vol. 6 no. 3

Highlights:

• Area Exhibitions

• Seventh Southern Hemisphere Felters Convergence

• Alpaca

• Community Church Tapestry Weaving Project

Collaborative Tapestries - Marilyn Rea-Menzies.

I have been painting and drawing all my life, being mainly self-taught and commenced to weave tapestries in 1980. I knew that images could be created with yarns so went to my local library and found some books on tapestry techniques. I had a frame made, took six weeks to make my first small piece and from then on was totally hooked on the medium and have never had an empty loom since that time. My work has been exhibited widely throughout New Zealand and has also been accepted in many exhibitions in Australia, America and France.

I came back to the South Island, in 1990, when I shifted to Picton from Tauranga to help set up the International Weaving School. After three and a half years in Picton I came to Christchurch with the intention of establishing myself as an artist who just happens to work with fibres though I continue to draw a lot, take photographs and am now starting to design digital images on my computer.

In 1999 - 2000 I was commissioned by the Christchurch City Council through Turning Point 2000 to create a large tapestry as one of the Millennium Arts Projects. This work was designed by Philip Trusttum a major New Zealand artist, and was woven in my studio as a community work. Almost 3000 people from Christchurch and visiting tourists contributed to the weaving of this tapestry which is now hanging in the Christchurch Town Hall.

It was through this collaboration with Philip that I conceived the idea of working with other artists, interpreting and weaving their design concepts. I felt that this was a good way to help develop tapestry as a valid art form which can be just as expressive as painting and not purely decorative, which is often the perception. Since then I have worked with Michael Reed, Rudolf Boelee, Don Driver, Julia Morison, Graham Bennett and Paul Johns. I have really enjoyed the collaborative process. I find that the artists I work with put a lot of faith and trust in my ability to interpret their design concepts in an honest and forthright way. I have to be true to their vision of the work whilst including something of my own in the interpretation. It has been a huge learning curve for me, as I end up doing things that I may never have considered in my own work. It pushes and extends my boundaries and I am sure that it will benefit me in my own work in the future.

I am working towards an exhibition of these tapestries at CoCA (Centre of Contemporary Art). The exhibition is titled "Primary Connections" and will be held from 16 December, 2004 - 14 January 2005.

It was a big thrill for me recently when Warren Feeney of CoCA pre-sold two of the tapestries to the Christchurch Art Gallery to be included in their permanent collection. We will borrow the works back for the exhibition. The two works purchased are : "Angel and Fly" designed by Julia Morison and "Song" designed by Don Driver.

These works are quite different in concept. "Angel and Fly" is a surreal image woven in subtle shades of grey apricot and pink, depicting a floating female form. The background forms the angel wings. The tapestry was woven with three different setts, 16epi through the middle section, 8epi in the main body of the work and 8and 4epi in the background area. This gives great textural contrasts throughout the work.

'Angel and Fly' (111 x 276cm) Julia Morison and Marilyn Rea-Menzies at the cutting off ceremony. Supplementary warp in the centre of the work.



'Angel and Fly' (detail) showing the different textures in the tapestry.

"Song" was designed by Don Driver, and is a much more decorative tapestry depicting toucans. The colours are vibrant and the black and yellow/green toucans are placed at random against a blue background. Pink areas form a contrast to the blue and also work well with the red/orange border. This border was worked with lazy lines in a random diamond pattern using subtle shades of red/orange. The bodies of the toucans are woven over two threads with a linen yarn. This gives a textural and colour contrast to the rest of the work.

"Song" (267 x156cm) design by Don Driver, interpreted and woven by Marilyn Rea-Menzies



"Song" (detail)



Visit Marilyn's web site.