Ida Lough
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1907, d.1985
Water Grasses
- 1974
- Wool
- Purchased with assistance from the Olive Stirrat bequest, 1988
- 920 x 970mm
- 88/124
Location: Sir Robertson and Lady Stewart Gallery
This work is from esteemed textile artist Ida Lough’s Water Grasses series, a suite of tapestries that she made late in her career. Lough often dyed her own wool using flowers, lichen, leaves and plants, weaving the hues of her environment into the work. Lough took inspiration from her memories of seeing water plants at low-tide while visiting a sunken village in England, and from the murky tendrils of reeds and raupō she saw in Hagley Park and the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. Water Grasses is a reminder of the swampy geography that Ōtautahi Christchurch is built on.
raupō ~ bulrush plant native to Aotearoa
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Exhibition History
Related
Notes
A Stitch in Time
Textiles comprise a small proportion of the Gallery's Collections, yet they span a vast time period, combining Chinese antiques and 17th century appliqué with fabric-based work made as recently as 2000. The diverse range of practice is indicative of the evolution, in form and content, of textile-based works from objects dedicated to religious worship and domestic decoration to conceptual art objects which exist outside a strictly functional context.