{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1788668"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1788668/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PJ2664/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PJ2664/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PJ2664","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ2666","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ2678","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ2674","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ2670","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ2665","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ2683","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ2679","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1788668","accessionNumber":"T.16-2025","objectType":"Tapestry","titles":[{"title":"Soft Flight","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Mary Farmer was celebrated throughout her working years as a highly accomplished artist-tapestry weaver. Her artistic talent was noticed from her early years and after studying painting at Beckenham School of Art she was taken on as an apprentice by Gwen and Barbara Mullins of Graffham Weavers where she learnt rug weaving. In 1964, aged twenty-four, she was awarded a coveted fellowship at the Digswell Arts Trust (1964 – 1967). From this point on, Farmer enjoyed a regular stream of commissions and invitations to exhibit as well as great critical acclaim. \r\nIn 1965, an early work by Farmer, Quadruple and Three, was chosen for the V&A’s touring exhibition, ‘Weaving for Walls’. This exhibition borrowed 41 pieces from 31 weavers, eight of which were acquired for the permanent collection, including Ann Sutton’s Sunspot (V&A: Circ.1181-1967), and Peter Collingwood’s sprang horsehair hanging (V&A: CIRC.1178-1967). Quadruple and Three (V&A: Circ.1146-1967) was another of the acquisitions and shows Farmer’s nascent interest in geometric form. Her work is also held in the Crafts Council Collection, the Crafts Study Centre, The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and the Government Art Collection. \r\nFarmer’s work was particularly esteemed by makers and critics and often chosen for shows curated by them, such as Marianne Straub’s ‘Textiles Today’ (1981), ‘The Maker’s Eye’ (1982) at the Crafts Council, where Farmer was a selector and contributor, and Peter Dormer’s ‘Beyond the Dovetail’ (1991). She also received many corporate commissions from clients including Channel 4 and Bank of America.\n\n‘Soft Flight’ is an important non-commissioned work, produced in 1985 and prized by its maker. In 1988 it was shown at the Sotheby’s Decorative Arts Award exhibition which subsequently toured in Japan, after which the artist retained the work in her studio for personal reference. As a later work, it displays all the qualities of Farmer’s mature expertise: her mastery of colour combination, the uncompromising abstract design which somehow suggests more than its parts, the perfectly tensioned weave producing a tight rectangular shape and an unwavering, sharp diagonal line which divides the red and turquoise to achieve the ‘positives and negatives which exchange dominance’ (quoted in Ann Sutton, British Craft Textiles 1985) as Farmer desired. \r\n","physicalDescription":"Tapestry in landscape format, grey/brown ground with turquoise and red rhomboid form, cotton warp with wool weft, signed and titled on reverse.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Farmer, Mary","id":"AUTH322506"},"association":{"text":"designer and maker","id":"x34662"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wool","id":"x40131"},{"text":"cotton yarn","id":"x30425"}],"techniques":[{"text":"tapestry","id":"AAT61981"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Cotton warp, wool weft, tapestry weave. Batten to hang. \r\nThe yarn for the ground colour is made up of brown grey and yellow grey threads in a ratio of 3:1. The red section is made up of two threads very close in colour: 2 red: 2 orange red with the red threads being slightly thicker. The threads used in the blue section appear to be of one colour. This choice of colours has the effect of giving more energy to the red section while the blue section appears more passive. \r\nThe tapestry is woven from the front with a technique of stitching the slits so they are visible on the back but not on the front of the tapestry. The slits are stitched together using wool in the corresponding colour. \r\nThe work can be seen on close viewing to be built up in a zig-zagging pattern in larger colour areas to maintain the tension. Overall the tapestry shows a very even weave with the tension perfectly maintained throught including areas where the rhomboid almost touches the edges.  ","categories":[],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&F","id":"THES48601"},"images":["2025PJ2664","2025PJ2666","2025PJ2678","2025PJ2674","2025PJ2670","2025PJ2665","2025PJ2683","2025PJ2679"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"TOP","id":"THES385857"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"tapestry","id":"AAT61981"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1985","earliest":"1985-01-01","latest":"1985-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed and made","id":"x39722"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"112","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"218","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Signed and titled on reverse in black handwriting on cotton tape. 'Soft Flight' on bottom left corner and 'Mary Farmer' on bottom right corner. ","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Soft Flight has been exhibited in: \r\nTapestries by Mary Farmer, Ceramics by Terry Moores, British Crafts Centre, 3 May – 1 June 1985\r\nOne Per Cent, Levitt Bernstein Associates, London 20 November – 10 December 1985\r\nShopping for the Walls, The Minories, Colchester, 08 Feb - 08 Mar 1986\r\nSothebys Decorative Arts Award, Sothebys, London, 15-29 August 1988 (illustrated on front page of exhibition catalogue)\r\nContemporary Crafts from Lincolnshire and Humberside, Usher Gallery, Lincoln, 22 Jul - 03 Sep 1989, toured to Worms (1 Dec 1989 – 28 Jan 1990), Idar-Oberstein (9 Feb – 16 April 1990) and Koblenz (9 May – 7 June 1990)\r\nMary Farmer: A Life In Tapestry, Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, Surrey, 7 May – 7 Sep 2024\r\nPublished in: \r\nCrafts Magazine No 102 Jan-Feb1990 p9\r\nCatalogue for Christie's British Decorative Arts from 1880 to the Present Day (20 Feb 1991)\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"'Soft Flight', tapestry, Mary Farmer, 1985","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["T.16-2025"],"accessionNumberNum":"16","accessionNumberPrefix":"T","accessionYear":2025,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-06","recordCreationDate":"2024-10-16","availableToBook":true}}