Jacqueline Poncelet - In Translation Opening Event

MOCA London presents In Translation, a new tapestry by Jacqueline Poncelet, realised in collaboration with master weaver Caron Penney of Atelier Weftfaced.

The exhibition brings together the finished tapestry with the original watercolour on paper (64 x 84 cm) from which it was developed, inviting visitors to consider how an artwork changes as it moves from one medium to another.The two formed a working friendship that produced Poncelet’s new work In Translation (01).

Over the period of a year Poncelet monitored the delicate process of first making the thread that would be woven (up to three threads of different colours of fine wool twisted together into a thicker one that could be woven).

Originally Poncelet wanted to use a section of her larger watercolour collage that included a white ragged seam (the torn edge of one piece of paper against another field of watercolour) but this proved to be too dominant within the composition.

So Poncelet shifted her focus in the drawing to a smaller rectangle that was then used as the cartoon for the final work.Viewers at MOCA London will be able to see the final woven work and the original collage and see for themselves how close to the original the woollen translation is.

But it is just that, a translation, not of the whole work by Poncelet, but a tight visual selection that she made.

Penney began by translating the work into a cartoon at a larger scale, that might then be translated into wool.

In each step away from the original Poncelet had to keep the feel of the watercolour at the core of the process and the outcomes.Poncelet is a highly respected artist who has worked across a wide variety of media over her career.

Her recent survey show at MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) was curated along traditional time lines and viewers saw her early ceramic works and then the widening of her artistic output to include larger sculpture, installation and more recently, delicate watercolours.

She has said that these watercolours are a direct response to her move to Wales, and while visually abstract, they do reflect her experience with the landscape and the ever present presence of water.Poncelet will also be working with the Lily Forbes her long-time assistant, to prepare a new vinyl installation that again will feature her watercolours printed onto a vinyl surface that is then pasted to the gallery walls.

This new work, a further iteration of ‘Other Cosmologies’, will also feature her watercolours from 2026.Water itself has become her latest translation collaborator.