Able
Machine woven tapestry
61 x 76 x 4cm
2024
£420 +pnp
Edition of 25 plus 3APs
 
Kirsty’s artworks traverse the boundaries of creation and destruction. Harris continually dissects her own complicated relationship with the subject of the atom bomb and navigates the tension of the desolate beauty of the landscape Vs the violent event that scars and transforms it forever.
Harris’s tapestries are created from images of her oil paintings. By introducing the iconic mushroom cloud, into the tradition of tapestry, she manufactures an intriguing spectacle. With a sly nod towards Guernica or the Bayeux Tapestry as historical documents, these contemplations on a split second encompass the craft, the catastrophic act and the meditative result. All are vying for attention. 
Yet these tapestries are woven by machines, calling into question the notion of “women’s work”. Up close up they are a cacophony of colour whereas viewed from a distance their muted and rather polite colour palette presides. While a nuclear reaction consumes only a millisecond of time, Harris’s tapestries seem to move at a slow and deliberate pace. They transcend their status as mere decorative objects, becoming repositories of history, culture and artistic tradition.