Still from Lightworks, many hands c. Matt Hulse film 2009

Here at Hidden Objects Oxford we have been thinking about different ways to continue our exploration of Oxford University college collections virtually in this lockdown year.  

In the early summer we Zoom-collaborated with four Oxford University graduates/undergraduates, through the University’s Micro-Internship programme, to explore the question What is Tapestry?   Some of their interesting findings have been published via the University’s TORCH website and you can access it here: Weaving Tales of the Green Man and A Look into St John’s Presidents Lodgings. 

We then set about thinking about how best to create a special, online Hidden Objects event around tapestry for the 2020 University Alumni Weekend ‘Meeting Minds’ : re-programmed as a digital week in the light of Covid.

We identified a particularly wonderful set of modern tapestries that hang in the Great Hall of St. Catherines College. These were designed by the artist Tom Phillips in 1979, woven by Edinburgh’s Dovecot Studios and are justly renowned examples of twentieth century tapestry.  These, we felt, would be a good focus for a webinar in the company of some tapestry scholars.  You can read more about these works here: tomphillips.co.uk/works/works-in-situ/item/5458-st-catherines-college-oxford.

In preparation for the webinar, we invited 3 tapestry experts to respond, in a self-recorded video, to the question What is Tapestry? in their own words and in their own way.  Our experts were: Naomi Robertson, Studio Manager at Dovecot Studios; Helen Wyld Senior Curator of Historic Textiles, National Museums Scotland and an independent tapestry weaver, Joan Baxter, who had worked on John Piper tapestries when a weaver with the West Dean Studios in the 1980s.

Award winning artist filmmaker Matt Hulse helped us with editing and John Maxwell Hobbs created and uploaded them to our new You Tube channel.  Matt then created his own ‘taster’ film as an introduction to these short videos.   Micro intern Isabella Lill also managed to secure a rare video interview with artist and St. Catherine’s alumnus Tom Phillips. All of these films can be accessed here and seen together our guest experts give a wonderful and precise introduction to the art and craft of tapestry. 

Naomi and Helen then joined us for the webinar together with Matthew Winterbottom, Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Ashmolean Museum to reflect on the Tom Phillips tapestries in the context of wider tapestry work both in Oxford collections and beyond.

We were also able to e-introduce a 21st century tapestry commissioned by New College in 2012 from independent tapestry weaver Jeni Ross : Dance to the Music of Time  (2012) which you can see here:

© Warden & Scholars of New College, Oxford/Bridgeman Images.

The event was lively and enjoyed by over 70 University Alumni on 9 September.

We have other virtual events in the planning so do sign up for more news and information here: