Sandra Sawatzky: The Black Gold Tapestry

An intimate work of monumental proportions, Sandra Sawatzky’s 220-foot-long hand-embroidered tapestry tells the story of oil, from prehistoric times to the present day. Representing nine years and 16,000 hours of labour by the filmmaker and fabric artist, the work alludes in its ambition to the thousand-year-old Bayeux Tapestry. Through its scale and the global significance of its subject, The Black Gold Tapestry dramatically shifts the popular perception of embroidery from the quietly domestic to the assertively public.