Mappamundi

Thursday, August 4, 2005

A tapestry based on the work of renowned Indian artist, Gulammohammed Sheikh, and woven by four Victorian women, will be installed at the Sidney Myer Asia Centre, University of Melbourne, and officially unveiled on August 18.

The tapestry is Mappamundi (world map, Latin) - a meditation on contemporary global civilisation based on a medieval "flat-world" schematisation. It captures a world where faith, joy and love of the divine have no global borders, and reflects this highly-regarded artist's interest in grand story-telling traditions.

Mappamundi was woven by four weavers of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop: Cheryl Thornton, Rachel Hine, Caroline Tully and Amy Cornall. Images from Indian village life and mythology sit alongside Giotto-inspired religious motifs, following the episodic nature of great mural tapestries of the past.

The Sidney Myer Asia Centre collection is open to groups on application to Asialink, (03) 83444800. Other works include John Young's The Pilgrim's Path and Akio Makigawa's Spirit Wall, one of Melbourne's landmark artworks.

The tapestry will hang in the Sidney Myer Asia Centre's Yasuko Hiraoka Room, named in memory of the wife of Mr Ken Myer. The couple were killed in a light plane accident in Alaska in 1992. Yasuko was a keen weaver and studied at one time under Cheryl Thornton, the lead weaver in the Mappamundi project. The work, on loan to the University of Melbourne, was donated to the Victorian Tapestry Workshop by members of Yasuko's family, including Mrs Neilma Gantner, Ken Myer's sister.

Asialink, The University of Melbourne

Mappamundi