Julia Gutman

Life in the third person

The Art Gallery of Western Australia commissioned Julia Gutman, winner of the Archibald Prize 2023, to design a tapestry measuring more than 12 metres wide. The Sydney-based artist came to Tilburg to develop ‘Life in the third person’, her largest and most detailed work to date. The tapestry, in which she herself appears in various situations, explores the scope and complexity of our self-image.

The woven work marks a new step in Gutman’s artistic practice. She previously made textile collages, stitching pieces of textile together to create her portraits, for example. Besides developing a design for a very large space, the lab’s 3.5-metre-wide industrial loom also gave Gutman the opportunity to discover a new technique. Throughout the process, Gutman responded to the tests and samples produced on the loom with new drawings and compositions. In the final work, a ‘padded’ effect was created with filling yarn, while woven stitching lines provided height differences.

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Photos by Dan McCabe