JENNIE MONCUR : PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

14 September - 03 November 2002
Wolsey Art Gallery

This exhibition chronicled the last 14 years of Jennie Moncur’s sumptuous and robust textile work and also displayed major new tapestries made especially for the show. Brought together for the first time, Public and Private was a rare opportunity to see a breadth of work, ranging from major commissions made for city offices, to intimate domestic-scale pieces created to reflect an individual client’s interests, as well as documenting the personal development of the artist’s work.

The focus was clearly on the artist’s work in woven tapestry, although projects in other media were represented via projected images. Here we got a true taste of the scale of some of the commissions she creates, some of which are simply too large to have been accommodated in Wolsey Art Gallery, or physically impossible to move: the linoleum floors at the ICA; the 6 x 4m hanging ‘Paradise Lost’ for Linklater’s office entrance in the City; twenty two painted railway bridges for Gateshead Metropolitan Council; the 3.5 x 2.5m tapestry for The Institute of Actuaries, as well as the six recently commissioned hangings for the new parliamentary building, Portcullis House, at Westminster - to name but a few. A high percentage of Jennie Moncur’s work is created for commission and an emphatic commitment is upheld to ensure that each piece becomes an integral part of its architectural surroundings.

There is a consistency to the work, in its bold imagery and Moncur’s obvious love of colour. She often talks of the unusual saturation of colour that can be achieved in tapestry, as the coloured threads are such a predominant part of the woven structure. It is interesting also to see the increasing importance of the foliage forms within the work. Moncur moved out of London seven years ago to live in Hertfordshire and the exhibition charted her growing interest in the plant forms of her garden.

The structure of her designs has always been inspired by the collage of images that surround us in our daily lives - views through windows, glimpses of buildings, billboards, passing traffic, vegetation - she sees these things as pattern layered on pattern; detailed images set against strong geometric shapes. These tapestries tell us that we rarely see things as a whole, but that the interruption of one image by another can result in something that teases our sense of perspective, resulting in something quite joyous to behold.

Ideas concentrate on the juxtaposition of contrasting shapes and forms. The scale is large, the colours rich and the combination bold. There is homage to tradition, with formal and fluid form, but the result is something which defies its historical source and is purely contemporary.

The tapestries are woven in the traditional manner on their side. This allows the weaving to produce smooth elongated vertical form, creating an overall tranquillity to the work.

Recently particular techniques - which adhere closely to the 14th and 15th century shading methods of ‘battage’ and ‘hachure’ - have been employed. Colours are systematically woven alternately, to allow a new colour to become dominant. These techniques create a three dimensional quality, giving depth and life to the forms.

A series of images were displayed to give visitors an understanding of the Tapestry Weaving process, as Linda Theophilus explains: ‘Tapestry weaving can never be called quick. The image grows millimetre by millimetre. Small bundles (butterflies) of coloured yarns (the weft) are threaded horizontally by hand, alternately, in front and behind the vertical warp threads, which are held taut on the upright loom. Gradually the image is built, by the precise positioning of the coloured weft threads, as they completely cover the warp.’

The majority of rugs are made with’velvet’ cut pile. An incised cutting technique is sometimes used to emphasise selected shapes within the image. The density of the pile and the height of the pile will vary depending on the location ie: a wall-hung rug will comprise a less dense pile than a floor rug.

Jennie Moncur studied at Goldsmith's College, University of London before specializing as a tapestry weaver at the Royal College of Art. Her work is recognized by, and listed with, the Crafts Council. Her work is in collections at Amersham International, Hertfordshire County Art Collection and Manchester City Art Gallery. Recent exhibitions include “Home Sweet Home - Contemporary British Design for the Home” an International touring exhibition in 2001-03, and “Summer in the Garden”, Contemporary Applied Arts in London in 1996-97.

As a student at the Royal College of Art London, she had visited French Renaissance chateaux of the Loire, where she was strongly inspired by the interplay between the highly decorative rooms – patterned floors, walls and ceilings - and the textiles. The bravery of those interiors, the surprising coordination gave her the confidence to develop the bold ‘pattern on pattern’ that became her signature, and that well described her vision of the everyday world as a collage of images layered together

On graduating Jennie Moncur’s assured handling of large-scale designs and her proven ability to work with specialist producers to achieve her schemes in other media, immediately brought commissions. Floor designs (most notably for the ICA, still in situ) railway bridges, painted cupolas and atrium walls, tufted carpets and painted fabric hangings, all became part of her portfolio as well as major commissions for tapestries.

Moncur continues to use the mohair for her warps that she first selected at college. This gives a softer ‘drape’ ensuring that the finished tapestry is always a fabric. In her new work, to help her explore the shading technique, she began to use much finer weft yarns. A mohair warp, with wool, linen and cotton weft, again reflects methods of historical tapestry work. The density of the warp varies depending on the detail and size of the work. The majority of tapestries are woven with 6 - 8 warp threads per inch. The density of the weave produces an intensity of colour which again exploit the unique character of tapestry.

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