Entitled ‘Feeling Blue’, this tapestry was designed by the artist Alberta Whittle, created at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, and woven by Naomi Robertson, Master Weaver, and Elaine Wilson. It is displayed on powder-coated steel gates, designed by Whittle and made at Glasgow Sculpture Studios. The tapestry is woven from cotton, linen and synthetic yarn in over 150 colours. It is embellished with cultured freshwater pearl beads. The dovecot symbol of Dovecot Studios features at the lower-right of the tapestry and on the back of the piece, where it appears alongside the initials of the artist and the weavers (‘AW NR EW’). The piece was first displayed in the Queen's House, Greenwich, in October 2023 as part of an installation with bells, shackles, rope, wire and cultured freshwater pearl beads.

Royal Museums Greenwich commissioned this artwork as a response to the collections and sites under their care. Taking inspiration from the Queen’s House in Greenwich, Whittle’s design uses the colour blue to link together historical, environmental and emotional themes. In the Queen’s House, blue featured in much of the original 17th-century decoration. It was the heraldic colour of Queen Henrietta Maria, the French wife of King Charles I, for whom the House was completed in the 1630s. Its use within the House was a statement of her creative and political agency. In using the same shade of blue, the tapestry reinvents this legacy for the twenty-first century.

The words ‘feeling blue’ appear against a background of mottled blues and greens, emulating ocean waves. Blue is the colour of the sea and of British naval uniforms. It represents marine ecosystems now under threat from climate change and evokes a complex history of naval conflict and maritime imperialism. These themes are continued in the borders of the tapestry, which feature orange and pink forms reminiscent of a coral reef, a delicate and endangered type of underwater habitat. Ropes – an important symbol of maritime activity – hang from the top border, evoking ideas of both imprisonment and rescue: a rope can tie someone up or it can act as a lifeline.

Pearl beads are stitched to the surface of the tapestry, symbolising the riches of the sea. These beads echo the pearl necklaces, earrings and jewels that denote power and privilege in many of historic portraits, such as the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (ZBA7719).

The theme of power is continued in the two-part steel structure – or “gates” – on which the tapestry is displayed. Through their resemblance to fencing, the gates evoke ideas of containment, exclusion, control and surveillance. The hinged fretwork panels recall, on the one hand, the curving forms of the Tulip Stair balustrade in the Queen’s House and, on the other, Caribbean architectural motifs. The latter are often found on chattel houses and derive from Dutch and European colonial influences.

The tapestry’s titular phrase, ‘feeling blue’, describes a state of melancholy or grief. The association between blue and sadness has existed since at least the 17th century, when the phrase ‘blue devils’ was used describe depression or mental illness. Sorrow and heartache are also central to the blues, a musical genre which emerged in Black communities in the United States in the early 20th century.

It has been suggested that the phrase ‘feeling blue’ may ultimately derive from a seafaring custom, in which ships would fly a blue flag or have a blue line painted around the hull to mark the death of an officer. This connection to maritime mourning rituals was important for Whittle. She says: “I wanted to use the phrase ‘feeling blue’ because it evokes grief, which people will have a very personal response to, but I also wanted to situate the phrase within the nautical history that is synonymous with Greenwich.” In the tapestry, the words ‘feeling blue’ encourage visitors to enter into emotional reflection – on their own lives, on the dangers of the climate emergency and on the painful legacies of colonialism.
Alberta Whittle is a Scottish-Barbadian artist who lives and works in Glasgow. Her practice encompasses drawing, digital collage, film and video installation, sculpture, performance and writing. Through her work, she highlights the harm associated with colonialism, the Transatlantic trade in enslaved people and the climate crisis. At the same time, she invites us to work against these damaging systems through care, understanding and creativity. In 2020, Whittle received a Turner Bursary, the Frieze Artist Award, and a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award. Two years later, she represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale; this display included a tapestry entitled Entanglement is more than blood (National Galleries of Scotland), her first collaboration with Dovecot.

Dovecot is a tapestry studio in the heart of Edinburgh and a centre for contemporary art, craft and design. Established in 1912, the studio continues a century-long heritage of collaboration with international artists to make handwoven tapestries and tufted rugs.