University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art showcases 220-foot ‘Black Gold Tapestry’ on the history of oil

IOWA CITY — If a stitch in time saves nine, then a 220-foot tapestry illustrating the history of oil could prove to be useful insight for a world contending with a critical pivot in the use of fossil fuels.

“The Black Gold Tapestry,” a work whose name references the oil capital of Canada in the artist’s home of Calgary, brings volumes of history to a single exhibit now on display at the Iowa school with the same official colors.

Hand embroidered by Canadian artist Sandra Sawatzky, the tapestry lets a series of 52 vignettes narrate the history of oil dating back millions of years to the dinosaurs. Through 220 feet lining the perimeter of a large room, each scene accompanied by a concise caption lets a mastery of illustrations speak thousands of words on their own at the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art.

The exhibit brings its debut to Iowa and the Midwestern United States after being on display in Atlanta, Austin and Boston.

From the creatures who helped create “fossil fuel,” to the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill of the 21st century, silk and wool thread on flax linen illustrates pivotal discoveries, inventions and evolutions in oil that forged the path to today — and offer clues to what the future could be.

“It’s so easy to judge the decisions made in the past, from our vantage point,” Sawatzky said. “If you go in close, you’re seeing these strands of thread that are in strands of thread. But in the way in which they’re laid down, they tell a story that’s very human.”

Inspiration

It’s not Sawatzky’s first time piecing scenes together to tell a story. After going to art school and teaching at a fashion college, she became a filmmaker for 20 years, specializing in narratives that told stories through choreography with little to no dialogue.

She fell in love with embroidery at a show of women’s embroidering at a local museum in 2007, when she decided to try her hand at it. Meanwhile, rapid change in the film industry with a collapse in her distribution and financing routes for films forced career changes in the artist’s life.

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“All these things were coming about, so I was looking at other possibilities of how I could tell stories that might not include doing it on film,” Sawatzky said. “When we think of embroidery, most people think of decorative embroidery — flowers, decorating the edge of a garment or handkerchief — but not as a medium to tell stories.”

With a newfound artistic muse, she drew inspiration from the Bayeux Tapestry she became acquainted with at art history classes in college. Before long, she started a single-handed journey of embroidering the almost 220-foot tapestry that would take nine years.

Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th century textile recounting the conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy in 1066, Sawatzky modeled her composition with a totally new storyline with just as much historical significance.

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“The Battle of Hastings has repercussions up to today. The story of oil also has those repercussions all across the globe and affects every part of our modern world,” she said. “I thought it seemed like a story worth spending nine years making.”

Fittingly, the “Black Gold Tapestry” comes to Iowa City as the Bayeux Tapestry in France prepares to go on view at the British Museum in London through an unprecedented loan brokered with the French government.

“We are showing this piece in what will be a momentous year for its source material,” said Diana Tuite, visiting senior curator of modern and contemporary art for the Stanley Museum.

Behind the scenes

With arresting details over three pictorial bands, the top and bottom borders of the tapestry are populated by over 400 dinosaurs that Sawatzky refers to her “film on cloth” that first debuted at the Glenbow Museum in Alberta in 2017.

Those dinosaurs, though not exactly mythical, were the artist’s choice to replace the mythical griffins that populate the same places on the Bayeux Tapestry.

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Through what would normally be a short walk, Sawatzky uses 220 feet to take viewers worlds away.

Colorful dinosaurs illustrate prehistoric climate change. Mesopotamian archers and warriors take viewers closer to the start of recorded history as they mix mud, bitumen and reeds to make the materials that comprise impressive pieces of architecture. Chinese inventors in 280 AD — about 1,700 years ago — shed new light on one of the first commercial inventions for extraction as they use the spring pole drill to mine for salt brine before discovering natural gases.

“The drill heads that they created are very similar to drill heads used today for crushing up rock,” Sawatzky said. “It’s such an old story. But we mostly know about the story (starting with) the Industrial Revolution.”

Oil booms, technology and mass production fill in the gaps around the eras where “coal was energy king” and cars came into the picture. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 ends the story with windmills — a foreshadowing seen by the artist in real time as renewable energy starts to take hold.

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Contemporary and relatable

Despite the genre’s name, Sawatzky said modern art can sometimes be difficult for contemporary audiences to digest. She hopes “Black Gold Tapestry” will put the monumental importance of global oil extraction into perspective by reinforcing the importance of art and its interdependence with history, science and technology.

“Sandra’s cross-disciplinary research was exhaustive, and she condensed an overwhelming chronology into vignettes,” noted Tuite. “What results is a profound reminder of the geological history that binds together all species on earth and the ways our geopolitical world order is designed around resource extraction. It expresses our ecological interdependence beautifully.”

For those with the urge to feel the textile they’re seeing, the Stanley exhibit offers an outlet to break the “no touching” rule. Included in the exhibition are touch labels, designed by Iowa fiber artists Linzee Kull McCray and Codi Josephson, that illustrate the four stitches used by Sawatzky — offering visitors an opportunity to physically appreciate the fabrication.

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“I wanted to make a work that could be seen by people who aren’t particularly involved in the world of modern art, look at it, and get something out of it,” she said. “I hope people reflect on their own lives and what they know, and how they can use that to keep on keeping on.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.

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