Large-Scale Tapestry Prize Exhibition Arrives at TAMA Next Week

An exhibition of large-scale tapestries from a renown Melbourne workshop is making its way to Ararat Gallery TAMA next week, comprised of pieces based around an international architecture competition.

The Tapestry Design Award for Architects connects the practises of those who design spaces, and those who create art for spaces. The award asks architects to design a large-scale tapestry piece, and Australian weavers at the Australian Tapestry Workshop (ATW) have brought some of last year’s finalists’ designs to life using their skill in one of the oldest handmade crafting traditions in human history.

Propositions: Tapestry Design Prize For Architects 2023 is a touring exhibition from the ATW, and will be opened by ATW director Sophie Travers. The ATW weavers – Leonie Bessant, Chris Cochius, Amy Cornall, Saffron Gordon, Tim Gresham, Pamela Joyce, David Pearce, Emma Sulzer and Caroline Tully – will lead a tour of the exhibition, followed by light refreshments in the Gallery foyer.

The relationship between architecture and tapestries goes back to at least the third century BC, from which tapestry wall-hanging remnants have been uncovered in Greece. Tapestries have historically held decorative, celebratory and educational purposes, as well as possessing functional value in the way they affect thermal and acoustic conditions indoors.

DATE: Saturday 22 June, 2024

TIME: 2pm

VENUE: Ararat Gallery TAMA

To read more about this free exhibition, visit the Ararat Gallery TAMA website.

Image: Detail of The Fox and the Lyrebird, designed by Tasmin Vivian-Williams and Tonielle Dempers, 2023, woven by Caroline Tully. Photo: Marie-Luise Skibbe