University House will soon have three stunning new works of art adorning its walls. Each will celebrate the research associated with a Nobel Prize connected with the ANU, however these works will be rendered not in paint but in wool.

Valerie Kirk has been commissioned by the ANU to create three tapestries to celebrate the 50th birthday of University House. They will reflect on the Nobel work of Sir John Eccles (ionic mechanisms of the nerve cell), Lord Howard Florey (penicillium and antibiotics) and the team of Professor Peter Doherty and Professor Rolf Zinkernagel (cell mediated immune response).

"A painter creates different tones and hues by mixing their paints together and applying these with a brush onto a canvas," says Kirk, Head of the Textiles Workshop at the ANU School of Art. "Tapestry weavers create their own palette of colours by winding different coloured strands of wool onto a bobbin which are then threaded through a network of tightly stretched strings called a warp. When you consider that around 12 strands of different colour are wound onto each bobbin you begin to see the range of possibilities."

"And wool is such a wonderful material with which to work. It's vibrant, light absorbing, provides a good density of colour, and has a solid feel. When used as the building blocks of a large tapestry it can have a powerful impact."

To create the images that will form the tapestries, Kirk has studied a range of material associated with the three Nobel Prizes and visited the John Curtin School of Medical Research. She even asked for a scanning electron micrograph of the penicillium mould that was the focus of Howard Florey's Nobel Prize.

"This has been a fabulous experience for me," she says. "In order to create the images for the tapestries I have been allowed to immerse myself in the science history of the university, something which is completely new to me."

"In the designs of the tapestries I've attempted to evoke a sense of the original research by using elements of the somewhat simple two dimensional diagrams used to describe their work. However, I'm combining these with images of a more contemporary digital nature that now surround these areas of science. Also, if you look closely, you'll see a few tell-tale details of the research trade; a small arrow here or a scale bar there."

Kirk has finished the tapestry on the research of John Eccles and is just beginning the one on Doherty and Zinkernagel. Each tapestry measures 1.2 m wide by 2.4 m deep and take around four months of full-time work to complete.

"Tapestries by their very nature are enormously time consuming to produce," says Kirk. "They are done all by hand, and you're making decisions all the time on the mix and blend of various colour tones and combinations, constantly reviewing how the balance is developing. However, the final result makes the effort worthwhile, a vibrant, eye-catching work of art that will last for a long time to come."

David Salt
Journalist

Photo Credit:
The Canberra Times: Detail of the tapestry celebrating the work of Sir John Eccles