After Gesner | Joan Gabie

After Gesner | Joan Gabie

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A limited edition digital production to document this National Trust commission for Joan Gabie at Blickling Hall in Norfolk.

After Gesner: a response to woodcut prints from Historia Animalium 1551-58

To re-intepret the Appendix of wood cuts from Gesner’s Die Auibus Volume 3, I began by making a series of ink drawings of unclean creatures, producing these again in chart form from which others would work. We approached the group of volunteers at Blickling Hall to help with replicating these drawings in stitch. I could not have imagined such a skilled or enthusiastically dedicated group assisting me. 
There was a mutual trust between us: a sense we were envisaging something new.
At the heart of Gesner’s huge undertaking there is true collaboration, with many anonymous hands included in the making of it. In that same spirit the After Gesner tapestry is the work of many. Each one brought their own unique style and skill, transforming laborious hours of patient stitching into a joyful celebration of the truly wild.  

Joan Gabie 
Part of the Trust New Art commission, 2019-20 
for the National Trust “The Edge of Things” Blickling Hall, Norfolk