British artist Justine Randall creates tapestries based on ‘light, time and the transformations that take place due to changes in the seasons and weather.’ Her simple designs are in colours that manage to be simultaneously bold yet subtle.

Firstly where are you based and where do you weave?

I live in South East London and I have a space at Thames-Side Studios in Woolwich, it’s a purpose built space for over 400 artists, designers and makers.

What is your background in textiles?

I studied Textiles at West Surrey College of Art and Design and then Tapestry in the painting school at the RCA.

How do you describe your work?

My work is about light, time and the transformations that take place due to the changes in seasons and weather and how this alters our perceptions of everything around us. 

What is it about tapestry weaving that appeals to you?

I love the fact that you build the structure as you weave, you start with nothing and then create texture, colour and depth. Working with yarn has endless possibilities, pitfalls and frustrations yet you are always discovering something new. Tapestry can be a frustratingly slow medium but because of that it enforces a discipline and determination to get things right

What materials do you use to weave with?

I mainly use wool, and I dye the colours myself, but I also use cotton and linen, I know there are lots of exciting materials out there to experiment with but I’m still finding out so much about natural yarns.

What type of loom do you use?

I weave on builders scaffolding, I’ve never used anything else, although I’d love a high warp loom.

Can you briefly describe the process? 

Drawing is very much part of the weaving process for me. I do loads of drawings, no one drawing is the definitive one; nothing is an exact copy, it’s just all part of the process. Usually I use several drawings to inform the work and then paint a life-size cartoon of the work which I hang on the wall opposite my loom, and that with lots of woven samples informs the work. If I get stuck I often go back to drawing to decide how I want to proceed. 

I know this is a very broad question but how long does a tapestry take?

About 3-4 months usually, but it depends on how much drawing and research I do, and often the dyeing takes a long time as I have to do that in the kitchen at home.

What is your career highlight to date?

There have a been a few but I know I want to achieve so much more, it would help if a weaver got to have their own work represented by one of the big galleries like Hauser Wirth, White Cube etc. 

However walking into the Royal Scottish Academy and seeing my Wiltshire Landscape Tapestries when they were shortlisted for the Cordis prize in 2016, was pretty impressive and then having the entire series bought by a collector in St Ives was even better. Showing with Themes and Variations in London in 2015 and being told by a collector in Cologne that my work was more beautiful and moving than the Gerhard Richter stained glass window in the Dom made me feel quite humble. 

Do you have any advice to aspiring textile artists?

When I was learning to weave, my tutor told me that you should never weave a tapestry if you can make the work in any other medium. What I took from that is this: Tapestry is about more than making an image from yarn, it’s about the work as a whole, if you’re trying to reproduce a brushstroke, pencil mark or smudge then you’re weaving a tapestry for the wrong reasons, you need to think about the ideas and feelings that you are trying to convey and translate that into your weaving.

I try to think of this advice every day before I start weaving, and it really helps in the decision making. 

Are there any exciting plans ahead? 

I’m currently embarking on a whole new project about trees and forests which will probably take several years, I tend to work in series, my Night Sky Tapestries number 6 in total and after seeing the Unicorn Tapestries in the Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum in New York I decided that I want my tapestries to fill entire walls end to end.

Any parting words?

I want my work to make someone cross a room to get a better look at it, good work should draw you in and immerse the viewer, take them out of the place they are in at that time and leave them peaceful, happy and inspired. Good art inspires, affirms and informs and that is what I want to achieve. 

www.justinerandall.co.uk. 

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