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2016.19
In its Familiarity, Golden - Essex House Tapestries: the Life of Julie Cope (2016.19)
Catalogue Record
Collection
Maker
Factum Arte
Flanders Tapestries
Grayson Perry
Flanders Tapestries
Grayson Perry
Title
In its Familiarity, Golden - Essex House Tapestries: the Life of Julie Cope
Date
2015
Description
One of a pair of tapestries designed and created for Grayson Perry's House for Essex project.
In this tapestry Perry's fictional character Julie Cope takes control of her life and widens her horizons. She relocates to Maldon with her children and attends university in Colchester, where she moves in with her second husband Rob. Together Julie and Rob share a profound happiness that lasts until her sudden and untimely death at the age of 61. It is this shocking incident that prompts Rob to build a ‘temple’ in memory of his beloved Julie – the shrine that Perry realised with his House for Essex.
Tapestry offers the possibility to play with textures, whether to recreate the wrinkles of an ageing face or convey the wetness of a coat. These effects are achieved through meticulous drawing and expert selection of weave patterns and tensions. Each of the Essex House Tapestries took several months to sketch, between four and six weeks to draw on the computer, three months to adapt and prepare for weaving, four days to thread onto the loom and five hours to weave.
Edition 4 of 9
In this tapestry Perry's fictional character Julie Cope takes control of her life and widens her horizons. She relocates to Maldon with her children and attends university in Colchester, where she moves in with her second husband Rob. Together Julie and Rob share a profound happiness that lasts until her sudden and untimely death at the age of 61. It is this shocking incident that prompts Rob to build a ‘temple’ in memory of his beloved Julie – the shrine that Perry realised with his House for Essex.
Tapestry offers the possibility to play with textures, whether to recreate the wrinkles of an ageing face or convey the wetness of a coat. These effects are achieved through meticulous drawing and expert selection of weave patterns and tensions. Each of the Essex House Tapestries took several months to sketch, between four and six weeks to draw on the computer, three months to adapt and prepare for weaving, four days to thread onto the loom and five hours to weave.
Edition 4 of 9
Dimensions
height (whole object): 290cm
width (whole object): 340cm
Object number
2016.19
Category
References
Credit
'Essex House Tapestries: the Life of Julie Cope' (2015) were acquired with Art Fund support (with a contribution from The Wolfson Foundation) and a donation from Maylis and James Grand.
On view
Short term loan out- 'Grayson Perry: A Temple for Everyone', Charleston in Lewes (25 Sept 2024–2 March 2025)
Maker's statement
[The tapestries] are the condensed life of a fairly ordinary Essex Woman set mainly in the second half of the twentieth century. The way the world is going in fifty years time many may find Julie’s life that we see as fairly ordinary as one of plentiful opportunity and exceptional wealth!