Hunting Tigers and Woolly Bears
My tapestry’s design captures two moths whose numbers in the last few decades have declined. The Cinnabar (83% decline) and Garden Tiger (90% decline). The design also highlights the essential role of planting and maintaining valuable habitats to help reverse these declines. The downward facing position of the moths and their antennae suggest the planting of roots and florals. The yellow plant depicted in the open wings is the ragwort, the Cinnabar caterpillar’s food plants which is often removed on mass as a poisonous weed.
An image of hope, the moths in the piece transition from being disjoined from the tapestries background to becoming fully woven as one design, the visible warps showing the fragility but also the strength and veins of both life and the woven piece, without, neither eco systems nor the tapestry exist. This gradual integration of the moths into the weave symbolising the importance of planting and maintaining suitable habitats.
The title, “Hunting Tigers and Woolly Bears,” references 15th-century hunting tapestries but also the act of searching for the hairy woolly bear caterpillars of the Garden Tiger moth and the orange and black striped Cinnabar caterpillars.
Woven in traditional fibres of wools and cottons the tapestry also includes synthetic fibres and wire. All fibres used to create the pieces are discarded materials. In a world saturated with materials I feel there is already an abundance of fibres to create tapestries today and well into the future without further depleting habitats.
A reflection on the fragile balance between loss and regeneration and how through understanding and care of our eco systems, biodiversity might once again thrive.
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