Justine Randall: Tapestries

Justine Randall, Philip King and Isaac Witkin’s works in the Gallery at the NewArtCentre, Roche Court Sculpture Park.

‘I use yarn like a painter uses paint or a sculptor uses wood or metal’ – Justine Randall

Roche Court Sculpture Park is delighted to announce an exhibition of tapestries by Justine Randall, which will be on display from 29th November until 1st February. The exhibition consists of a series of five wall hangings, that use the differing weights and textures of yarn to convey the changing quality of light.

The tapestries that are featured in the exhibition are accompanied by three sculptures, Alter Ego (1963) by Isaac Witkin, Diamond Maquette (1972) by Phillip King and Vertical Form No. 1 (1963) by Robert Adams. Each sculpture is in conversation with the tapestries, not just through form and colour, but by providing the context of British sculpture in the decades leading up to Randall’s studies at the Royal College of Art.

Artwork: Justine Randall
1, The Night Sky: 7am Early Spring, 2019
Wool, cotton warp
170 x 170 cm
66 ⅞ x 66 ⅞ in.

Between 1986 and 1988 Randall studied at the Royal College of Art under Mary Farmer, who oversaw the movement of the Tapestry Course into the School of Fine Art. The fact that Randall was taught in the Fine Art Department, as opposed to a specific Textile Course, can be seen in her use of colour and composition, which has a painterly, abstract quality.

When discussing her decision to work with textiles, rather than painting or sculpture, Justine Randall describes how ‘colour seems more real and vital in yarn’. The depth of colour which can be achieved with weaving, in combination with the large scale of these tapestries, grants the pieces an intensity that is rarely achieved in paint.

There is a contrast between the density of the tapestries, and the transient moments of light that they portray. The variations between the intensity of night, and the clear light of the early morning, are achieved by adjusting the weight and sett of the warp and weft, in combination with using different yarns. Each of the five tapestries has been woven using British wool, which is hand dyed by the artist, and spun in Yorkshire according to Randall’s specifications.

The exhibition Justine Randall – Tapestries is part of a long history of textile exhibitions at Roche Court Sculpture Park, starting in 2006 with Henry Moore's tapestries, which came directly from his family, followed by an exhibition in 2022 of work by the foremost British textile artist Ann Sutton, that have sought to bring textiles to the forefront of our program.