A Window Into The Collection: Reimagining the Solebay tapestry

The group reflected on what places most strongly signify Kidbrooke to them, arriving at the idea of ‘That Shop’. A place that is identifiable by its location and appearance, but not by name. Known to those ‘in the know’ who have been in the area for a while, and unknown to those who come later.

Repurposing the age-old rescue call of SOS, meaning ‘Save Our Souls’, the group coined ‘South of Somewhere’.

It references Kidbrooke’s wartime history as a Royal Air Force base, considering how it has developed and become a completely new area. An arrow points down from the cross-stitched marshland onto the new identity below.

A bold and powerful statement is attached like a badge to a collage of gender-based issues.

The group looked at the Battle of Solebay tapestry and considered the people that are included, and the people that are not. They discussed who and what should be represented in a contemporary re-imagining. Importantly, the group wanted to see everyone represented and everyone’s voice heard. So here, against the pink, blue and white tones of the transgender flag, and the genderless bodies of the future, we hear the voices of the group speak, ‘Power Has No Gender'.

During a time of climate crisis and fear, public concern and attention is focusing on preserving and rebuilding nature and our surrounding environment. Here, a red kite, a bird once native to Kidbrooke that is thought to have influenced the area’s name, can be seen swooping down into a fiery blaze.

His claws clutch onto a question, asking have we hit ‘mission critical?’.

The Royal Air Force is central to Kidbrooke’s wartime history. During WW1 and WW2, the marshland across Kidbrooke was used by the RAF. Famously, women from the area who contributed to the war effort would fly the blimps over Blackheath to ward off enemy planes and bombers.

Beneath the appliquéd blimp, a family photo can be seen. This shows the family of Mary, a current member of Lee Green Women’s Institute, whose mother-in-law controlled the blimps in Kidbrooke. As the flowers grow from the marshland painted behind them, we can see how Kidbrooke has developed, constantly changing into the place it will become.

In dialogue with the Queen Conversation tapestry, this regal image presents an alternative. It uses strong yellows and purples to display a pattern reminiscent of wax-resist printed fabrics. The silhouette of a woman takes on a royal status within its postage stamp frame.

This tapestry signifies the group’s commentary on a much-needed shift in the representation of Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups across collections.

Today, the climate crisis feels ever imminent. Many suggest we are working with limited time.

With rising sea levels destroying habitats and causing extinction, the patterns of the sea are telling of the issues facing the world. Using an image of the sea, redrawn by the group from the Battle of Solebay tapestry, this piece brings it into the contemporary, overlaying current issues into this historic naval scene. Coloured embroidery, and carefully placed fish prints, spell SOS in morse code, and the viewer is faced with the question ‘what have you done?’

Using the colours of the Women’s Institute (WI), this tapestry shows the presence of the group within the community of Kidbrooke and neighbouring area, Lee Green, throughout the years.

‘Fleur de Lee’ refers to the ‘fleur-de-lis’ or ‘flower of the lily’, the symbol seen in the top left which is often associated with the WI. In this image, they take ownership of their powerful role in the history, present and future of the area.

In many stories, the future of existence lies in the post-human; the ‘cyborg generation’.

Here, the group explores futuristic anthropomorphic and metamorphic beings through the Dadaist drawing technique, ‘Exquisite Corpse’. The technique uses collaborative drawing as each section is drawn and passed to the next artist to continue. This tapestry highlights the collaborative practices within the group, and in the making of a tapestry, as well as the unknown that is to come.

Throughout the workshops the artist group considered how deeply rooted the Solebay tapestry is in concepts of power, colonisation and war funding.

This became an interesting question in the context of modern-day war across Ukraine. Discovering that the Solebay tapestry could have been commissioned as a celebration of war, the group questioned what this could look like today, and how their feelings towards war could be communicated visually.