‘Flying Home to Arkadia’ 2006
Technique: gobelin, turkish & persian knotting (wool, mohair, linen, cotton, gold leaf) 8ft 6in x 7ft 11in
A high loom gobelin tapestry, part of a series about territory and home, based on maps and photographs. Though we are all Europeans now, most of my work is about my personal domain within this ring of stars - the places that are of particular importance to me. When we are far away we have a nostalgic, almost mystical longing for this place of memories, of sunshine and happiness and at night we look at the skies above us here and know that beyond the curve of the world they glitter just the same above our personal territory there. A sky of clouds, reflected in the water, becomes a map of the land, the endless terrain reaching away beneath the open vault of heaven. Subliminally, imperceptibly we are called back. And in our dreams, as we fly above it, we see below the hills, trees, skies - marks on the landscape from across the centuries, the perpetual round of the agricultural year. Within this continuing circle, Territory/Home is ultimately where our dead are buried. On a map X marks the place that matters - a cross either way.
This is a woven landscape pared down to its essentials, employing a language of symbols which is fundamentally personal and secret but which can be explored, even interpreted and understood, a shadow or echo of something past, carried in an unknown - forgotten? - language.