Ptolemy Mann

This series of hand dyed and woven artworks by Ptolemy Mann, is intended to evoke a complex and historically rich textile landscape. The textile heritage at Chatsworth is immense and the challenge was to interpret traditional notions of functional and non-functional textiles such as Mortlake tapestries and elaborate passementerieinto a series of contemporary artworks. Ptolemy also acknowledges the actual architecture of the house in the dimensions of the panels.

“Chatsworth generates colour. Walking through the rooms is a chromatic experience. Certain colours in particular occur throughout the house: verdigris green, rarely seen in contemporary interiors; deep black indigo produced from a Mortlake weavers dye bath. Hidden deep in the textile archive passementerie of surprising vibrancy: a mustard yellow glows. A restored carpet in the library reveals an electric ultramarine of Yves Klein saturation. Painted ceilings with aquamarine skies of the palest hue; a Chinese silk of vermillion spills out from its storage constraints.  The State Bed is bedecked with an almost fluorescent coralline. An umber weft, gleams across pale warp threads outlining figures. Glossy citrine shimmers as the light falls diagonally across wool pile.”

Ptolemy Mann graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1997 and has worked since then from her textile studio in Sussex. Her work is held in several important public and private collections. From 2006-10 she was commissioned as a colour consultant to design the façade of Kings Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire and in 2011 a major touring exhibition of her work “Ptolemy Mann: The Architecture of Cloth, Colour and Space” opened at the Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales.

This work is unique.