29 November 2012 at 6pm
This month, we will be going to Dovecot Studios to view Carpets of Distinction, a collection of new works that explores the connections between art and craft and mass-produced industrial design.
Curated by Panel (Glasgow School of Art graduates, Lucy McGeachan and Catriona Duffy), the exhibition pairs the traditional, specialist skills of the Dovecot Studio weavers with six contemporary Scottish artists: John Byrne, Alasdair Gray, Ruth Ewan, Nick Evans, Nicholas Party and Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan. The artists have been asked to make new designs for rugs in response to the Stoddard-Templeton archive, examples of which are also shown in this exhibition.
Panel are also exhibiting at Glasgow’s People’s Palace in Scotland Can Make It (until Jan 2013). Here, they have paired artists, designers and musicians with Scottish heritage brands such as Highland Stoneware, Tunnocks and Johnstone’s of Paisley, to make souvenirs of quality. The collaboration results in objects with an art aesthetic or sensibility.
In previous projects, as well as in the Dovecot exhibition, they have used archives as inspiration for new works, asking artists and designers to respond to historic material.
Lucy McGeachan and Catriona Duffy, rug commissioners and curators of the exhibition, will be joining us to discuss the work on show.
25 March 2009 at 5.45pm
We have a special Spin evening this month with a visit to Dovecot Studios where we will be joined by artist Claire Barclay whose work we discussed at last month’s event at the Fruitmarket Gallery. Claire is one of many contemporary artists who have been invited to collaborate with the master weavers at Dovecot Studios. We will also be joined by David Weir, Director of Dovecot who will tell us more about the Studios and this exciting commission.
Dovecot Studios is home to Edinburgh’s innovative tapestry company. Established in 1912 by the 4th Marquess of Bute, Dovecot Studios founding weavers came from William Morris Merton Abby Workshops in Wimbledon, London. The studios were incorporated as The Edinburgh Tapestry Company in 1946, although they also continued to be known as Dovecot. Since its inception, the weavers have worked creatively with artists such as Frank Stella, Stanley Spencer, Frank Brangwyn, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, David Hockney, Eduardo Paolozzi, Alan Davie and more recently Barbara Rae and Elizabeth Blackadder, producing stunning tapestries for private commission and for public collections worldwide.
In August 2008, after an £8million refurbishment, Dovecot Studios moved to its new home in the former Victorian swimming baths on Infirmary Street. The main workshop reuses the main swimming pool area and the public viewing gallery retains the integrity of the original space. The weavers work regularly with artists, fashion designers and photographers to create new work in tapestry. The commission with Claire Barclay is particularly interesting due to Claire’s interest in process and making.
