Artist Betty Barnet Brown, trained in Fine Art at Chelsea and Camberwell, will display 11 large-scale textile works across the grand façade of Ushaw Historic House, Chapels and Gardens in REVEAL, a spectacular installation lasting just one day.
The pieces are on an immersive scale, the largest one measuring 6m x 4m. The work is vivid, evocative and in more recent examples, narrative in nature; featuring a variety of characters including a family of Chinese Foo Dogs, the Greek god Pan and an entourage of goats, a Mughal Prince with his tethered falcon and Fred Siriex surrounded by massive trifle-blancmanges.
The work will be suspended across the façade by a process involving wooden dowels, guy ropes and the cardboard inner-tubes from carpet rolls!
Betty, who trained in London at the Chelsea and Camberwell schools of art, says each tapestry can take her a year to complete.
“This is a really audacious event, almost like an art flash mob,” she says. “These tapestries are going to occupy the building, and the whole event feels larger than life.”
“Work like this shouldn’t be stored away somewhere, it should be seen, and this is a chance to do just that in a really unique and special environment. “This is about storytelling, and I love creating work that fires the imagination. Hopefully, for those who experience it, this event will do just that.”
REVEAL will go on display on Saturday 2 August at 10am.