Tania Kovats is a UK artist with a strong connection to Scotland, having her works permanently installed at the Fruitmarket Gallery and Jupiter Artland. She was the Guest Curator at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2018 and is currently Professor of Drawing and Making at DJCAD, University of Dundee. SEAMARK, that will be unveiled in late July at Dovecot Studios, marks the artist’s first time working in the medium of tapestry, and will form part of Kovats’ first exhibition in Edinburgh in a decade, forming part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2024.
This new tapestry expands Kovats’ SEAMARK series and reflects the artist’s ongoing interest in the horizon line between sea and sky. This body of work, encompassing painting, drawing and ceramics, depicts expansive, meditative seascapes made with simple, repeated brushstrokes that travel towards the horizon. The imagery used in the series presents the passing of time through the broken surface of the sea, the elemental rhythms of the moon and the absorbing qualities of weaving and drawing.
The artist has been collaborating closely with Dovecot’s Master Weavers since January to create and interpret her tapestry design. Hand-woven by four weavers, the work has taken four months to complete. The tapestry’s depth and texture has been achieved through the gradation of tone towards the light of the horizon and by combining the properties of different yarns.
Master Weaver, Naomi Robertson says “We are fascinated to be working with Tania Kovats; to have the opportunity to study the grid, the pattern and perspective in her seascapes and to interpret her work through the natural rhythms of weaving. The tapestry captures her subtle greyscale ink palette in many layers. These include a black warp, many tones of wool, four silvery metals and a high sheen yarn to highlight the reflections of the sea.”
Alongside the tapestry, three new SEAMARK ceramics will be on display, as well as a group of drawings exploring the phases of the moon. These recent works are contrasted with an important older work, All the Islands of All the Seas (2016), In bringing these works together, the exhibition will consider how Kovat’s long term practice explores our connection to nature through poetic, psychological and socio-political lenses.
Tania Kovats says “I make the same SEAMARK drawing again and again, yet each is unique. I select different colours, surfaces, and ways of making as a meditation as well as a drawing. Some of the meditation comes back to me when I look at the drawing. The SEAMARK tapestry is particularly special as the weaving process has been a magical encounter, starting with finding threads made of moonlight or midnight black seas, to understanding the making process, and how the tapestry fills up from the bottom towards the horizon, like rising waters. I’ve also enjoyed finding out about the watery history of the building with its previous life as Edinburgh’s oldest public baths.”
Dates:
27th July – 2nd November 2024
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 