Australian Tapestry Workshop
The Australian Tapestry Workshop is a unique arts organisation within Australia -- a world centre for tapestry, with a reputation for vitality and technical excellence.
The workshop's 10 weavers collaborate with leading Australian and international artists to translate important, contemporary works into tapestries. The weavers are also trained as artists, which means they have a deep sensitivity to the works that they interpret. The tapestries are carefully crafted, using traditional labour-intensive techniques, including the hand dying of yarn.
Since its establishment in 1976, the workshop has created almost 400 tapestries, many of which hang in eminent buildings around the Melbourne CBD, with others on display in the beautiful and historic South Melbourne workshop itself.
Allens has a close relationship with the workshop and provides ongoing legal advice, primarily in the areas of corporate and intellectual property law.
Australian Tapestry Workshop Director Antonia Syme, Partner Paul Quinn and Lawyer Joelle Vincent talk us through the workshop and its amazing tapestries.
This video was originally uploaded in May 2011
Australian Tapestry Workshop Projects & Program
The Australian Tapestry Workshop (ATW) enjoys an international reputation as a leader in contemporary tapestry. Established in 1976, it is the only workshop of its kind in Australia and one of only a handful in the world for the production of hand-woven tapestries. Artists worldwide are discovering how this traditional medium can be used in completely new ways, and the ATW is in the vanguard of this revival.
Using the same techniques employed in Europe since the 15th century, the ATW's skilled weavers work with artists from Australia and overseas to produce tapestries that are known for their vibrancy, technical accomplishment and inventive interpretation.
Since its inception, the ATW's philosophy has been to employ weavers trained as artists to enable close collaboration with the artists whose work they are interpreting. Many notable Australian and international artists have collaborated with the ATW's weavers over the years including Arthur Boyd, Jon Cattapan, John Olsen, Jorn Utzon, David Noonan and Sally Smart.
To date, the ATW has created more than 500 tapestries ranging from palm-size to monumental. They are woven using the finest Australian wool, which is dyed onsite forming a unique palette of 370 colours. These works hang in significant public and private collections around the world. The ATW is one of Australia's largest producers of public art, and every year, millions of people see an ATW tapestry!
The Making of Perspectives on a Flat Surface
'Perspectives on a Flat Surface', 2016
Designed by John Wardle Architects,
Woven by Chris Cochius, Pamela Joyce, Jennifer Sharpe, & Cheryl Thornton Size: 2.26 (H) x 3.85(W) m
Materials: Wool, cotton
Commenced: June 2016
John Wardle Architects’ winning design for the Australian Tapestry Workshop’s inaugural Tapestry Design Prize for Architects has been produced for the proposed Phoenix Gallery in Sydney. The design, entitled Perspectives on a Flat Surface, was awarded joint first prize in 2015, along with a design by Kristin Green (director of KGA Architecture) with Michelle Hamer entitled Long Term Parking.
Following the competition last year, John Wardle Architects, on behalf of the Australian Tapestry Workshop, approached arts philanthropist Judith Neilson AM for a donation to help fund the making of the tapestry. The practice is currently designing a new art gallery, performance space and garden for Neilson with Durbach Block Jaggers, artist Janet Laurence and timber craftsman Khai Liew. “We approached Judith thinking that she may wish to donate some money towards it,” said John Wardle. “She decided to fund the whole thing, which is an extraordinary act of generosity.”
The tapestry design plays on the relationship between architectural interior as an enclosure and tapestry as a surface. “We thought, maybe we could combine what we do as architects – space-making and the performance of space – and see if we could project that into a form that could be made into a tapestry,” Wardle said. “The one thing that we deal with that tapestries invariably don’t is perspective.”
The tapestry references Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico (Olympic Theatre) in Vicenza, Italy with its set design by Vincenzo Scamozzi. The sets feature exaggerated perspectives of long streets receding into the horizon. “What we did was we inverted that. We created an imaginary object – a structure that actually projects towards the audience to create new picture planes and a sense of advanced perspective and then rendered the effects of light and view within this imaginary object,” Wardle explained.
The tapestry was designed to be site specific, to be hypothetically hung in the new Australian Pavilion in Venice design by Denton Corker Marshall. “You can see [there’s] a slight bluey-ness about it that suggests the position of the pavilion on the edge of the canal,” Wardle said.
Text by Linda Cheng, published in Architecture AU, 22.06.16.
The design rationale from John Wardle Architects original Tapestry Design Prize for Architects entry is: The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza designed by Palladio, houses Vincenzo Scamozzi’s trompe l’oeil street scenes. The design is renowned for creating the exaggerated perspective from each of Palladio’s grand portals. Our design refers to our own exchange between Italy and Australia. A series of imagined sets have been created that reverse Scamozzi’s inverted perspectives, forming a series of picture planes drawn toward the audience. Each multiplies shifting perspectives across one wall whilst allowing another to exaggerate the proportions of the space. The partial views and variant transmissions of light within each inverted chamber suggest a place that is ‘elsewhere’. About John Wardle: John Wardle established his architectural practice in Melbourne in 1986. His practice includes working on small domestic dwellings to university buildings, museums and large commercial offices. The architecture of John Wardle Architects (JWA) is closely tailored to its place and highly experiential in nature. In 2001 he completed a Master of Architecture at RMIT University, and he is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia. Wardle has formed strong links with both artists and public art galleries and, as a practicing architect and board member of both the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, has contributed to important public art programs.
ATW Diamond Jubilee Tapestry
Work Commenced: December 2012
Work Completed: February 2013
The Diamond Jubilee Tapestry Project was begun in 2012 in celebration of the Queen's 60 years on the throne and the visit to Australia of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. It has its roots in a collaboration with the Prince's School of Traditional Arts (PSTA) in London, which was founded by His Royal Highness.
The first stage of this project was an intensive 4-day workshop in November 2012 for students at Coolaroo Primary School together with educators from the PSTA and Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) and artist Nusra Latif Qureshi. The students were deeply engrossed in their work, and the feedback we received was remarkable. On 6 November, the Workshop was honoured with a visit by HRH The Prince of Wales. After touring the Workshop, Prince Charles chatted with the students and viewed their artwork.
The creation of the tapestry design has truly been a collaborative process. More here...
The Making of Life Burst by John Olsen AO OBE
The Australian Tapestry Workshop is excited to have worked with one of Australia’s greatest living artists John Olsen AO OBE for the ninth time to create ‘Life Burst’. John Olsen AO OBE is an artist who not only realises the creative potential of the tapestry medium, but also designs specifically for tapestry, following in the footsteps of some of the greatest artists in history such as Rubens & Raphael.
‘Life Burst’ has been commissioned for the new Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and will be unveiled in July 2016. The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) Project is delivering a new $1 billion facility purpose-built for cancer research, treatment, education and care. From mid-2016, the VCCC will provide a new home for the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. It will also provide new cancer research and clinical services for Melbourne Health, new research facilities for The University of Melbourne and education facilities for all building partners.
Head of the design consortium is Plenary Health, builder is Grocon PCL & the architectural design team is Design Inc. and Silver Thomas Hanley in partnership with McBride Charles Ryan. The new design is to be symbolic and representative of the bringing together of these project partners, of the creation of new networks and clusters of collaboration. The building will have an imagery that is expressive of optimism and progress.
John Olsen’s design reflects the architectural rhythms of the atrium where the tapestry will be installed. John Olsen AO OBE visited the Australian Tapestry Workshop before the start of the tapestry to collaborate with the weavers on the design. The shapes in the design reflect the shapes of the atrium, and the purple with architectural design; including the carpet and glass panels of the building.
Soumak (supplementary weft) has been used to accentuate certain areas of the tapestry. The majority of the tapestry has been woven with cottons to achieve a more silken effect and a lightness and transparency in the yellows and oranges. Our yarn dyer, Tony Stefanovski created several new tones of orange for this project. John Olsen has worked with the ATW on eight previous occasions, including a private commission in 2015, ‘Sun over the You Beaut Country’.
About the artist:
John Olsen AO OBE was born in Newcastle on 21 January 1928 and moved to Bondi Beach in Sydney with his family in 1935, which began his lifelong fascination with Sydney Harbour. He attended St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill leaving in 1943. He went to the Datillo Rubbo Art School in 1947 and from 1950 to 1953; he studied at the Julian Ashton School in Sydney, then Auburn School from 1950 to 1956. In 1957 a Sydney art critic raised funds for John Olsen to go to England and paint. He studied printmaking in Paris in 1957, followed by two years in Spain. Olsen returned to Sydney in 1960. He wanted to represent Australian culture in such a way that the world would see the wide diversity in the changing outback seasons. In 1968 Olsen set up and ran the Bakery Art School, and from 1972-73 he painted Salute to Five Bells, inspired by Kenneth Slessor's poem, which currently hangs in the Sydney Opera House.
Olsen's work has been marked by a deep engagement with the Australian landscape, and he has lived for long periods in different parts of the country and travelled widely. In 2013 he began work on his largest painting, 8 x 6 meters, on eight panels, The King Sun was hung in Collins Square in the Melbourne Docklands. The work depicts a brilliant Australian sun. He describes his work as an exploration of the totality of landscape. In Australia's New Year's Honours of 1977 Olsen was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and in the Australia Day Honours of 2001 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. He was awarded the Centenary Medal on 1 January 2001. He won the 2005 Archibald Prize for his portrait ‘Self Portrait Janus Faced’.
ATW FRIENDS LECTURE SERIES: John Wardle
21.07.16
ATW attendees were invited to join renowned architect John Wardle, joint winner of the 2015 Tapestry Design Prize for Architects, for a talk on the relationship between textiles, artisanal practices and architecture from around the world.
John Wardle presented a range of interests, both personal and those shared with others in the practice, that have influenced the work of JWA. His talk took us around the world on various trips; to view buildings and places of interest, into the workshops of many artisans and the studios of artists, as well as the studio of the practice itself. John also elaborated on the particular processes employed on their wide range of new projects.
John Wardle established his architectural practice in Melbourne in 1986. His practice includes working on small domestic dwellings to university buildings, museums and large commercial offices. The architecture of John Wardle Architects (JWA) is closely tailored to its place and highly experiential in nature.
In 2001 he completed a Master of Architecture at RMIT University, and he is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia.
Wardle has formed strong links with both artists and public art galleries and, as a practicing architect and board member of both the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, has contributed to important public art programs.
Chris O'Brien Artist In Residence Talk
Chris O’Brien is a multi-disciplinary artist who works in painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Utilising a myriad of mediums, he is predominantly concerned with representing domestic dwellings with personal, domestic narratives. He crafts houses in varying states of decrepitude, anthropomorphising them with names such as ‘Edmund’, and populating them with stories involving thieves, ghosts and animals. His source material includes real estate brochures, photos, Google Earth maps, architectural plans as well as pure conjecture. Currently, he is working on a collection of soft-sculpture cacti, which will be presented as a window installation at our Annual Gala in December 2017.
Chris O’Brien (born 1981) has been a studio artist at Arts Project Australia since 2002 and presented his solo exhibition ‘Marjorie Street’ at Arts Project Australia in 2007. He has been involved in many collaborations and group exhibitions including Third/Fourth, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne (2013), Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne (2006, 2008 & 2010) and Pearls of Arts Project Australia: The Stuart Purves Collection, National touring exhibition (2007-2009). His work is held in private collections throughout Australia.
Caroline Phillips Artist in Residence Talk
Caroline Phillips was an Artist in Residence at the Australian Tapestry Workshop during April and May 2014.
Caroline Phillips is a Melbourne based artist whose work has been shown in a number of solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia and Internationally. Working primarily in sculpture, Phillips employs recycled and industrial materials to create handmade objects and installations. Though based on non-objective principles, Phillips’ transformation of her chosen materials, explores the materiality of the body and psychological metaphor to materialise subjectivity. Caroline also works as an independent curator and arts writer.
Caroline Phillips gave a talk about her residency on Thursday 8th of May, 2014.
Dell Stewart Artist in Residence Talk
Dell Stewart was an Artist in Residence at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 2014.
Dell Stewart's work combines various processes often regarded as belonging to the world of craft (ceramics, textiles, animation) with a deeply embedded personal history. These practices and references often assemble in immersive environments, blurring the boundary between the artwork, the space it occupies, and the audience within it. Her work utilises a broad range of mediums and ideas with a particular interest in fostering new material connections and collaboration.
Stewart has organised and participated in numerous exhibitions, and has shown extensively in Australia and overseas – recently at West Space (2012), Linden Contemporary and Craft Victoria (2013). Dell has curated exhibitions at Craft Victoria, Utopian Slumps, Mr Kitly, Platform Contemporary Art Spaces and C3 Contemporary Art Spaces in Melbourne, working with artists locally, nationally and internationally. She has designed and delivered workshops in animation for both adults and children at Artplay (2010, 2011), Signal (2010, 2012, 2013), Harvest Workroom (2012) and Craft Victoria (2012, 2013). She has a BA in Fine Art (Printmaking) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Animation and Interactive Media RMIT (2001).
Jennifer Goodman Artist In Residence Talk
26.04.16
Artist in Residence Jennifer Goodman gave a a free talk at the ATW about her practice on Thursday the 21st of April at 1pm.
Jennifer Goodman is a Melbourne Based artist with a degree in painting from RMIT University. She has exhibited extensively across Australia, her latest solo exhibition titled Apopros was held in Gallerysmith, Melbourne.
Jennifer's approach to art is that art is a sensory experience. Her work is an exploration of the senses. Her paintings seek to elicit a response from the viewer on many levels – to engage with both their emotional and visual intelligence; to be immersed in the beauty of the colour, form and surface of the painting.
During her artist in residency program at the ATW, she plans on furthering this line of investigation through the medium of tapestry. She is intrigued by possible outcomes of interpreting the subtlety of colour and illusions of transparency found in her own oil paintings into the much more textured medium on tapestry.
Carolyn Cardinet Artist in Residence talk
French-born Carolyn Cardinet is an Australia based experimental artist with a Post Graduate Masters of Fine Art from RMIT University Melbourne and a Bachelor of Fine Art from VCA, Melbourne University.
In her art practice Carolyn collects discarded and unnoticed objects; the rejected mass-produced objects of everyday life. Reclaiming these everyday objects she assembles this refuse into sculptural forms, drawing connections between the objects themselves and the natural environment from which they have been extracted.
In 2017, two solo exhibitions Microbeplastica (Sydney) and Organic Plastic (Newstead). Her largest installation Glacier at CUBE 37 (Frankston) was solicited for the Bastille Day Festival (Meat Market), Sustainable September (South Melbourne Market) and RETHINK (Ballarat) her sculptural installations adorned the 2017 French Film Festival opening ceremony.
Friends of the ATW Lecture: Guan Wei
We were delighted to host internationally renowned artist Guan Wei for a public lecture at ATW.
Visiting from Beijing, Guan Wei discussed the design process for the tapestry 'Treasure Hunt', and his artistic practice and career more broadly.
Over the last three decades, Guan Wei has developed a significant international reputation as a contemporary artist whose work crosses cultural and political boundaries. As a Chinese artist who migrated to Australia in 1989, his practice draws on the experience of both cultures as well as an informed socio-political awareness.
Emma Greenwood Artist In Residence Talk
Melbourne shoemaker and leather worker Emma Greenwood has carved herself out of a unique space in the world. Her brilliantly off beat kicks reference everything from Victorian needlepoint to hip hop culture and her spectacular shoes have won awards, been exhibited around Australia and have featured in numerous publications both in Australia and overseas.
Using a variety of materials such as leather, postage stamps, electrical wire, and handmade textile trims, Emma’s pieces are highly tactile and previous, referencing a love of colour, humour, symmetry and silhouette.
Eschewing the need for seasonal trends, Emma revisits signature themes and ideas inspired by flora, regalia ,philately, science fiction and pop culture. Either bespoke and highly customised, or in small production runs, she lovingly handcrafts her footwear and accessories entirely from her Melbourne studio.
“My practice focuses on the manipulation of leather into bold sculptural forms. I combine traditional skills of leatherworking, jewellery and textile arts to produce footwear and accessories with a sense of experimentation and contemporary direction.”
Nina Magee Artist in Residence Talk
Artist Nina Magee gave a free talk about her practice and and her residency at the Australian Tapestry Workshop.
Nina Magee is a Tasmanian-born artist, living in Melbourne. Nina finished a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honours, majoring in printmaking, at RMIT University in 2013. Following completion of her degree, Nina was awarded the Collie Print Trust Scholarship for Emerging Victorian Printmakers by the Australian Print Workshop.
Grounded in the practice of printmaking, Nina's work examines how visual natural history records and specimens are composed and displayed, with an emphasis on the native flora and fauna of Australia. Her work combines printed elements on paper and textile, often with a three-dimensional outcome. The resultant works question the relationship humans have with the non-human world.
Britt Salt Artist in Residence talk 2018
Spatial engagement underpins Britt's practice. She uses transparent industrial materials and mono- chromatic tones to create interactive artworks that explore notions of form and space. In her sculptural work and site-specific installations resilient materials including vinyl and perforated aluminium are drawn, folded and woven into shapes and patterns, creating spaces that gently shift with the viewers’ movement and interaction.
Significant achievements include the prestigious Art & Australia/ Credit Suisse Private Banking Emerging Artist Award (20130 selection for the ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award and receipt of the Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists (2010), which supported residencies at ACME studios (London), Draw International (France) and Red Gate Gallery (Beijing). In 2015 Britt was curated into international exhibition Sala del Portal, Venice, which coincided with the 56th Venice Biennale; she also undertook a residency at Youkobo Art Space Residency, Tokyo, which culminated in a public installation.
Britt Salt's career has increasingly spanned both art and architectural practices, working on large-scale commissioned artworks such as an 8-storey façade for Fender Katsalidis Architects’ in Melbourne. Spanning nearly 3000 square metres, this facade is said to be the largest public artwork in the Southern Hemisphere.
Gabrielle New Artist in Residence Talk
Gabrielle New was an Artist in Residence at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in February and March 2015. She gave an artist talk at the ATW on 5.3.15.
Gabrielle New is a director, performer, choreographer, butoh dancer, movement, live and contemporary artist with a profound interest in healing, transformation and the intra-psychic landscapes of the human mind. In 2009 she established The Space Between Performance Collective to showcase new, innovative, Australian dance theatre. She regularly performs and teaches in Australia and internationally most recently in New Zealand, Poland and Canada. In 2014 she completed a Master of fine Arts at RMIT Melbourne where she extended her practise to video performance and installation.
gabrielleleahnew.com
Gina Ropiha Artist in Residence Talk at ATW
28.02.17
Artist Talk
Gina Ropiha’s practice is an ongoing investigation into her experiences of having been brought up in Aotearoa (New Zealand) as a person of mixed heritage- Maori and Pakeha (New Zealand/English). Ropiha has found her values and beliefs often at odds with materialistic and work-focused first world society she lives in.
The difference, slippage and challenges between these two states is where Ropiha’s interest lies, allowing for a humorous and dynamic space in which to produce work.
Since living in Australia Ropiha has become interested in making objects that are personal adornments and has been involved in projects where the wearer of said adornment responds to and has the ability to change the work in some way. In Maoridom, there is no separation between ‘Art’ and life. Objects that are made for ritual and utilitarian purposes alike are considered important and a vital and active part of people’s everyday existence. Through the 2017 ATW residency program Ropiha intends to learn from the ATW weavers while conversing with the environment- both land and physical space of the workshop.
Ropiha is considering producing works based on Maori hand making practices. As is always the case in Maoritanga, engaging with any traditional practice activates and addresses ideas regarding tapu (sacredness) and noa (temporality)- issues that will be considered throughout the making of the work.
Ropiha has exhibited nationally and internationally and at venues including but not limited to Blakdot Gallery in Melbourne (2016) La Paz, Bolivia (2014), Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares in Mexico (2014) and Objectspace Auckland in New Zealand (2013). Ropiha participated at the Weaving Worlds project and exhibition at the ATW in early 2016.
Melbourne Now | RMIT University
RMIT alumni Juan Ford, Susan Dimasi and Jon Cattapan discuss their work in the Melbourne Now exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.
The exhibition is a celebration of the Melbourne art world. It's it's closing days, so get along and see it before time runs out.
More information can be found at
Bronwyn Hack Artist in Residence Talk
Bronwyn Hack is a painter, printmaker, ceramicist and 3D artist. She has an intense and fervent art practice that results in poignant work, which sometimes reveals a painful melodrama. Early work has centered on scenes of ardent attraction featuring fictionalised characters drawn from popular culture and her imagination. She has also maintained a keen interest in exploring animals, with a particular penchant for depicting dogs, both wild and domestic. Her more recent work has a darker edge to it; while still focusing on figurative subject matter, she has begun honing in on specific sections of the body and bones, reinterpreting these forms in objects and paintings that are thought provoking and intriguing.
Bronwyn Hack has worked in the studio at Arts Project Australia since 2011. She's been included in numerous group exhibitions including: 'Wild Lands, Linden New Art, Melbourne; ‘Nests’, Northcity4, Melbourne; ‘My Puppet, My Secret Self’, The Substation, Newport; and each Annual Gala at Arts Project Australia since 2011.
The Making of Catching Breath designed by Brook Andrew at the Australian Tapestry Workshop, 2015
The Making of:
Catching Breath, 2014, designed by Brook Andrew and woven by Chris Cochius, Milena Paplinska and Pamela Joyce, wool, cotton, 1.9 x 1.4m.
Catching Breath is a veiled portrait of a seemingly unknown subject. The act and presence of the veil is well known to conceal or represent faith, culture and social values. In Catching Breath the veiled subject peers through the veil with eyes clearly focused on the outside. This eye communication catches our attention, our breath as we decided whether or not to lift the subjects’ veil, to reveal the unknown.
The original portrait is from the artist Brook Andrew’s archive of rare books, postcards and paraphernalia. This archive is an active medium that is massaged into the artist museum installations and exhibitions. In this case Catching Breath is well hidden below the veil of time, though one can lift it if they dare, dare to reveal the past, the curiosity, the known and unknown, the mystery.
This design will be woven in two parts - on the left loom the tapestry will be woven, and the veil on the right loom. Both these parts will be woven with the same palette, however the veil will be a thinner shaped piece, woven with a even weave (warp and weft visible in even amounts) and in a technique similar to cloth weaving. The veil will be woven with a visible black warp specially dyed at the Workshop and silver Lurex thread will be used.
Proudly supported by the Tapestry Foundation of Australia and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, this project will be the latest addition to our Embassy Tapestry Program and will be going on loan to the Australian High Commission in Singapore.