What is NOT tapestry today?
The Thread Runs Both Ways: the heritage & future of tapestry art (Cordis symposium)
Saturday March 16, 2019
Inverleith House, Royal Botanical Gardens
Edinburgh, Scotland

As textiles experience an increasingly warm welcome in galleries known for exhibiting Fine Art, we find varied descriptions of the textile and textile structures. In our post-disciplinary era, what benefits are gained from the continued organisation of a discipline around a technique? Does skill have a place in our definition of tapestry today? And what may we stand to lose when contemporary practices that use tapestry avoid the term? This lecture tests the limits of how we are willing to define contemporary tapestry and considers examples of work that are loosely – sometimes very loosely – woven with a discontinuous weft.

image below: Igshaan Adams Stoflike Oorskot (2016) in collaboration with Kyle Morland. Woven nylon rope, string and mild steel, approx. 300 x 120 x 240 cm & homepage: Igshaan Adams Bent (2018).