Villa Joe tapestry by Paul Noble at The Laing

This incredible tapestry by Paul Noble is currently hung in the Laing Art Gallery, and dominates the large wall space downstairs by the staircase. It is based on a previous pencil drawing by Noble, and has been created using hand-dyed yarn.



"It shows the stony landscape surrounding Villa Joe, a ‘personalised holiday villa’ near Noble’s imagined city of Nobson Newtown. The villa itself, a gigantic glass building in the shape of the name Joe, is depicted as a cabinet of curiosities filled with ornaments and stuffed animals. The stony landscape around the building is littered with allusions to Henry Moore, with rock formations echoing Moore’s reclining figures and helmet series."



I'm interested in the way that Noble has created three dimensional text. It took me a while to work out what the sentence was, which is useful to bear in mind as I am thinking about ways in which to make text more challenging to read for my recent publication, Portion Control.

Cooking with Three performance in The Bottomless Pit of Outros

Cooking With Three are a mixed-media improve. ensemble that work loosely with dance, visuals and sound, directed by Jamie Cook. Collaboration is a key element of the group's process, with core members Lizzie J Klotz (dance), Adam Goodwin (visuals) and Jamie Cook (sound) inviting members of all disciplines to an open fortnightly forum to improvise together and develop interdisciplinary improvised performance.

The 'Echoes of Abstraction and the Bottomless Pit of Outros' performance was fully improvised, realised amongst the exhibition, responded to the work as well and the unique space and audience at the Laing.

Echoes of Abstraction II and The Bottomless Pit of Outros brings together newly commissioned work by artists Jamie Cook, Adam Goodwin, James Pickering and Paul Trickett, alongside highlights from the Laing Art Gallery’s modern and contemporary painting collection. The exhibition explores and is inspired by the legacy of abstract art, and has been organised in partnership with The Laing Art Gallery.