Tapestry Commissions and Collections

1976 "Darkness into Light" woven tapestry, hand dyed and some handspun wool on a cotton warp, suspended from a brass rod. Dimensions: 3.5m x 5m overall.

Chosen from a competition of five selected artists organised in 1975 by Architects Noel Bell Ridley Smith, for a large textile piece to hang in the newly built St Andrew's House, behind St Andrews Cathedral in Australia Square, Town Hall, Sydney.

At the time Sonia Delaunay and the Bauhaus were strong influences, as well as the vital abstraction of Aboriginal art. I was working on the design when I was co-ordinator of Tiwi Designs on Bathurst Island, Northern Territory in 1974. It took eighteen months to weave, made in three sections which were sewn together, and was installed in September 1976. It hung in the foyer of St Andrews House, visible from Australia Square, until about 2003 when it was decided to make a coffee bar in the foyer.  My research assistant Lycia Trouton  discovered it had been put in storage at St Andrew's Cathedral. Years later I had a request from St David's church in the Anglican Dioscese of Thirroul in Wollongong, to see whether thy might be able to repurpose it. I was very sad when the administrators of St Andrews Cathedral told me it had been lost, despite its great size and weight.

Installing 'Darkness into Light' September 1976, St Andrews House, Australia Square, Sydney.

Take Time Craft ACT 2019

 

 Earth Archive 11: from Soli, Cyprus  Woven tapestry with wool, cotton, silk, linen and metallic yarn 62cm x160cm  2017. 

 Documenting Soli: Earth Archive 11 Drawing on gesso on paper. Plant dyes, earth and ash pigments from the Paphos theatre excavation, Cyprus 62cm x 160cm.  $2500

Artist statement

Diana Wood Conroy has been a tapestry weaver since the 1970s, and her research interests now combine archaeology and contemporary visual cultures, especially Aboriginal ways of relating to country. She has been involved with Yolngu and Tiwi art exchanges over many years. Her study of ancient art (fresco, mosaic and textiles) in Cyprus and Greece since 1996 informs her creative work in tapestry and drawing. Her work is held in national and international collections.  

A story from Diana: Once just after my mother had died, I saw the fragments of a marble cut floor or opus sectile, in a ruined basilica of Soli, an ancient city of Cyprus. These marble fragments had formed a path for pilgrims moving on hands and knees down the aisle, looking for redemption. The pieces were worn and patched. I did a drawing at the time and this became the basis for larger drawings. I using dark grey earths I’d sourced from ash layers from the Hellenistic theatre site where I was working, as well as   pomegranate dyes from my garden in the Illawarra and fibre from local sheep and alpaca. The drawing became gradually translated into a tapestry, using more pomegranate dye on handspun wool, as well as metallic yarn and silk. The process of weaving is a comfort. The text is from the American writer Marilynne Robinson’s 2014 novel Lila, “What will I do without her, what will I do?”

Through being in ancient places in Australia and Greece or Cyprus  I have learnt a sense of time in the two meanings of Chronos  and Kairos. 

'Locals on Board': Wollongong Art Gallery October 2018 - February 2019

Diana Wood Conroy

Title: Whorl with fragment of tapestry

Tempera with Australian ochres and gouache on board with woven tapestry of wool silk and linen 60 x 80 cm

$650

Artist Statement

 Drawing, tapestry and archaeology have always been packed together for me. I learnt tapestry weaving while employed as an archaeological Illustrator at the British Museum in London. Since 1996 I’ve been involved in examining fresco painting in the excavation of an ancient theatre in Paphos, Cyprus, over annual seasons with the University of Sydney. I begin to perceive my home location in the Illawarra through the lens of the classical European past. This position was a response to Aboriginal friends who urged me to ‘look at your own dreaming, know your own country and ancestry’.  I weave through love of the intricate, thoughtful process of relating threads and patterns. The tapestry fragment placed above the painted whorl gives concrete evidence of time passing, attempting to make time and space cohere in the ‘flesh’ of the woven fabric. The patterned whorl is derived from a mosaic floor in a ruined basilica in Cyprus, painted with Australian earth colours.

Shadows and Fragments - Red Point Gallery, Port Kembla

Liz Jeneid and Diana Wood Conroy: Shadows and Fragments, Red Point Gallery Port Kembla July 11-28, 

See the works here

New article on "The Conversation"

http://theconversation.com/old-sites-new-visions-art-and-archaeology-collide-in-cyprus-84586