Shelly Goldsmith

Banners of Persuasion

I had an interesting talk with the artist Shelly Goldsmith about the Tapestries in Banners of Persuasion. It was about the relationship of the artists and the tapestry makers. They were made in China by a group of women who were not named and who worked part time on the tapestries and part time at other jobs. The production of the tapestries was also very hierachical with the painters having their works translated by the tapestry makers. I also suspect that having the tapestries made in China was a lot cheaper then having them made in Europe. The organiseres boasted that the tapestry makers used traditional European methods of tapestry making with extraordinary skill. I contacted the organisers of the exhibition to see if I could contact the women tapestry makers in China but they told me I could address my questions through them because of the language difficulty. This all makes me feel very uneasy.