A Visit with Berit Engen
October 26, 2024Berit Engen and I began a conversation over Facebook Messenger after I shared images of her tapestries to my page, Ellen Ramsey Tapestry. I really like Berit’s sophisticated approach to abstraction and told her so. Some months later we bonded over Messenger again when I posted photos from the National Museum in Oslo. Berit, who was born in Oslo, was arriving in the city to visit relatives just as I was departing. Somewhere along the line she mentioned that she lives in Chicago, and I mentioned that I had a trip planned in October. We hatched a plan to meet.
Berit Engen is an accomplished small format, narrative tapestry weaver. She has a very interesting tapestry practice – one with a degree of focus and commitment that few can lay claim to. This woman is a marvel! In 2007 she embarked on an ambitious project to weave 1,000 small-scale tapestries. This project, Weft and D’Rash: A Thousand Jewish Tapestries, is thoroughly documented on her website. https://www.beritengen.com/about-my-project- Below is a sampling of some of my favorite works from her website.
Berit immigrated to the US in 1985. She converted to Judaism after sixteen years of marriage. Through this religion and culture, she has found both community and purpose. Her weaving practice is devoted to, and inspired by, the stories and traditions of Jewish life.
Nothing I can write would adequately explain the depth and breadth of Berit’s project. If you visit her website, you can view over 620 tapestries and read all about her motivations and methods. There are many more completed works still waiting in the wings to be photographed and uploaded to the site, and I saw no fewer than seven works in progress on looms in her studio. She weaves full-time, completing (on average) one tapestry per week. Her total output toward her goal is now over 680 tapestries.
In the 1980s, Berit wove larger work, and several beautiful tapestries hang in her home. Her style is consistent from her older work to her current smaller works. She focuses on lyrically repeated elements and often uses a limited palette. I was especially smitten by the tapestry below. It is partially strip woven.
The small tapestries in the Weft and D’Rash project are all similar in size, frequently about 9 x 7 inches. Berit uses a very simple frame loom – literally stretcher bars with nails driven into the top to space the warps. Berit’s studio is her sunroom, where she sits near the window in the natural light, and weaves every day. She weaves three or four tapestries on a single warping of her frame. When an idea for a tapestry comes to her, she makes a quick sketch with notations for reference, but the sketch is not a cartoon. She weaves with 16/2 linen warp at a sett of approximately 3 warps per centimeter (about 7-8 epi). She leaves a short warp fringe on her pieces that, when mounted, forms a decorative (and instructive) component.
In 2018 Berit was commissioned to weave a series of ten Biblical tapestries for Temple Har Zion in River Forest, Illinois. I was fortunate to get a personal tour of the installation from the artist. The stories are carefully sequenced and tied together visually through the symbolic use and repetition of a specific blue in each tapestry. The best way to view and learn about the whole series is by visiting this website page: https://www.beritengen.com/my-tapestries-35-series/mount-sinai-on-route-43/1
Her tapestries are beautifully mounted and framed. Because they are in a public place with a lot of foot traffic, they are mounted behind glass to protect the works. It was difficult to photograph them without lots of reflections getting in the way.
Presenting small tapestries is an endless challenge, but Berit has hit upon a nice solution to the problem. She uses professional book binders’ cloth that is 50% cotton, 50% linen, for a backing. Her linen fringe almost disappears on this background, creating a subtle additional framing detail that compliments the work and does not distract from it. Berit outlines her mounting and framing methods in detail on her website. I highly recommend visiting her page on the topic. https://www.beritengen.com/mounting-and-framing
It was fun to meet Berit and see how she works. I am always amazed at the variety of ways that tapestries are conceived, woven, and presented. Tapestry weavers are such interesting people – a little obsessive maybe, but always interesting!