Barbara Burns – Dancing Vessel

A decorative vase featuring a striking black and orange design, created from a woven tapestry.

Faces and figures, colour and form, these are the elements you will find expressed in Barbara’s work. The medium of tapestry allows her to create an image in a cloth with a depth of colour and texture she feels she can achieve no other way. She finds the dichotomy of the ancient medium of tapestry expressing contemporary subjects a powerful and satisfying tool.

Colour and the female form are emblematic of Barbara’s work. She chose dancers as her element because of the motion and energy they portray. It also speaks to her love of dance. Intrigued by working in three dimensions, she has been employing a technique called pulled warp. This allows her to weave flat with unwoven areas. Once off the loom she slides the weft along the warps to achieve a three-dimensional shape inspired by the ceramic work of Grayson Perry and Greek vessels. Barbara sees Dancing Vessel 2 as the beginning of a long-term project of three-dimensional pulled warp tapestries. Her present goal is to weave and shape something eight feet tall that is more complex in shape and imagery. Dancing Vessel 2 as a stepping stone to that end.