In the centre of the tapestry, green leaves form three circles containing faces of different ages; a naked women on the right; a man in greenish-blue clothes on the left facing the centre trough a brick red heart held in his upturned hands; hearts in different shapes and sizes, a rose, red leaves – except for the green centre and the blue-green on the left, all the colours of this tapestry are warm hues of rose, red and pink.

Mother´s Heart, woven by Hannah Ryggen in 1947, is one of the more colourful tapestries shown at an exhibition of her work at the Modern Art Museum in Oxford until 18 February. Whereas Mother´s Heart in its symbolic patterns reflects the cycle of life, most of Ryggen´s woven works tell stories of political conflict, war and murder in the 20th century: from Ethiopia (1935) and Death of Dreams (1936) to Blood in the Grass (1966) on the involvement of the US in the Vietnam war.

Spending most of her life as subsistence farmer in a remote Norwegian community, with the art of tapestry Ryggen makes powerful public statements of resistance to political oppression and speaks up for human rights.

Visit Modern Art Oxford before 18 February, or if that is not possible make a trip to Trondheim and see her work at the Hannah Ryggen Center at the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim in Norway.