John Allen in Farnham
Mule Train
The touring exhibition of John Allen’s carpets and mixed media pictures is currently on show at the James Hockey and Foyer Galleries at UCA Farnham (29 June – 8 August)
John Allen is best known for his knitting – he set up the knitting department at the RCA in the 1970s and has written five books on the subject – but he originally trained as weaver at Camberwell and this exhibition focuses on his woven work. Called The Forbidden Kingdom, it features carpets inspired by his visits to Nepal. ‘The colour used is inspired by the landscape seen particularly in the high Himalayas and the Mustang region, The Forbidden Kingdom.’ But he also cites the vibrant colours of the cities as a source – particularly textiles and the streets of drying chillies. And the carpets aren’t only inspired by Nepal, they’re actually woven there in Tibetan wool by local weavers from designs worked out by Allen in London.
The carpets start off as figurative, woven pictures and then over time you can see how Allen has gradually added more decorative, stylised elements, until the latter ones are purely abstract. The exhibition is hung chronologically to show how Allen has developed these ideas and it makes for an interesting insight into the creative journey from representation to abstraction.
www.ucreative.ac.uk
