Tim Parry-Williams, NO
Grana
Grana reflects on the history of cochineal dye, with its origins in Mexico and Central America, to its global trade, and vital place in world textile cultures. Embracing the scale of industrial weaving production, and blending abstraction and realism, it mirrors the curiosity of early users unaware of the dye’s source and true nature. The work acknowledges the insect, and labourer lives behind this once valuable commodity, highlighting its profound influence on global material culture and the lasting allure of red.
Depiction of an indigenous labourer from Grana cochinilla, Don Joseph Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez ce.1777; Image: Newberry Digital Collections for the Classroom, Edward E. Ayer Manuscript Collection, VAULT Ayer MS 1031
Grana (Detail) | H170 x W415cm | Wool and Linen; Cochineal | Machine jacquard woven | 2025; Image: Sem Svoni
photo by Bjarte Bjørkum
Tim Parry-Williams, GB
1993-1998 BA and MA Textile studies at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design, and Okina- wa Prefectural University of Art, 2002-2013: Senior Lecturer, Woven Textiles and 2013-2019: Course leader MA design, Fashion and Textiles - Bath Spa University, UK. Since 2004 several exhibitions including “Plain Stripe Check” in Tokyo, Farnham, Stroud and Haslach. Since 2019 Professor of Art: Textiles at the Faculty of Contemporary Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen, Norway. Since 2020 member of the Advisory Board ETN, European Textile Network.