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Unravel : the power and politics of textiles in art.

Contributor(s): Publication details: London : Prestel Verlag, 2024.Description: 288 pages : illustrations ; 29 cmISBN:
  • 9783791377285
Subject(s):
Contents:
Thread weaves the world / conversation with Wells Fray-Smith, Lotte Johnson and Amanda Pinatih
Fibre creatures, furry beasts: queer textile crittercism / Julia Bryan-Wilson
A thread of life: retrieving power through textiles / Miguel A. López
On art and subversion / Denise Ferreira da Silva
Subversive stitch / Mounira Al Solh, Ghada Amer, Feliciano Centurión, Judy Chicago, Tracey Emin, Nicholas Hlobo, LJ Roberts
Fabric of everyday life / Pacita Abad, Sanford Biggers, Sheila Hicks, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Loretta Pettway (Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers), Faith Ringgold, Tschabalala Self, Billie Zangewa
Borderlands / Igshaan Adams, Margarita Cabrera, Cian Dayrit, Kimsooja, T. Vinoja
Bearing witness / Arpilleristas, Teresa Margolles, Violeta Parra, Zamthingla Ruivah, Hannah Ryggen
Wound and repair / Louise Bourgeois, Diedrick Brackens, Harmony Hammond, José Leonilson, Georgina Maxim, Angela Su
Ancestral threads / Magdalena Abakanowicz, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Yto Barrada, Kevin Beasley, Jagoda Buić, Myrlande Constant, Jeffrey Gibson, Jose Antonio Guzman and Iva Jankovic, Acaye Kerunen, Tau Lewis, Ibrahim Mahama, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Solange Pessoa, Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Lenore Tawney, Cecilia Vicuña, Yee I-Lann, Sarah Zapata
Summary: Textiles weave through our everyday lives yet remain one of the most underexamined mediums in art history and contemporary practice. The universality of fabric has made it a potent messenger across global contexts – whether communicating personal stories or conveying hidden messages. Embedded in a single thread is the material history of the medium, revealing ideas relating to gender, labour, value, ecology, ancestral knowledge, and histories of oppression, extraction and trade. Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art shines a light on artists from the 1960s to today who have explored the transformative and subversive potential of textiles, harnessing the medium to ask charged questions about power: who holds it, and how can it be challenged and reclaimed? Spanning intimate hand-crafted pieces to large-scale sculptural installations, this major exhibition brings together over 100 artworks by 50 international practitioners. Drawn to the tactile processes of stitching, weaving, braiding, beading and knotting, these artists have embraced fibre and thread to tell stories that challenge power structures, transgress boundaries and reimagine the world around them.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book CGLAS Library Blue 746.0905 FRA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 12821

Published on the occasion of the exhibition held at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, 13 February - 26 May 2024 ; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 14 September 2024 - 5 January 2025.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thread weaves the world / conversation with Wells Fray-Smith, Lotte Johnson and Amanda Pinatih

Fibre creatures, furry beasts: queer textile crittercism / Julia Bryan-Wilson

A thread of life: retrieving power through textiles / Miguel A. López

On art and subversion / Denise Ferreira da Silva

Subversive stitch / Mounira Al Solh, Ghada Amer, Feliciano Centurión, Judy Chicago, Tracey Emin, Nicholas Hlobo, LJ Roberts

Fabric of everyday life / Pacita Abad, Sanford Biggers, Sheila Hicks, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Loretta Pettway (Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers), Faith Ringgold, Tschabalala Self, Billie Zangewa

Borderlands / Igshaan Adams, Margarita Cabrera, Cian Dayrit, Kimsooja, T. Vinoja

Bearing witness / Arpilleristas, Teresa Margolles, Violeta Parra, Zamthingla Ruivah, Hannah Ryggen

Wound and repair / Louise Bourgeois, Diedrick Brackens, Harmony Hammond, José Leonilson, Georgina Maxim, Angela Su

Ancestral threads / Magdalena Abakanowicz, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Yto Barrada, Kevin Beasley, Jagoda Buić, Myrlande Constant, Jeffrey Gibson, Jose Antonio Guzman and Iva Jankovic, Acaye Kerunen, Tau Lewis, Ibrahim Mahama, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Solange Pessoa, Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Lenore Tawney, Cecilia Vicuña, Yee I-Lann, Sarah Zapata

Textiles weave through our everyday lives yet remain one of the most underexamined mediums in art history and contemporary practice. The universality of fabric has made it a potent messenger across global contexts – whether communicating personal stories or conveying hidden messages. Embedded in a single thread is the material history of the medium, revealing ideas relating to gender, labour, value, ecology, ancestral knowledge, and histories of oppression, extraction and trade. Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art shines a light on artists from the 1960s to today who have explored the transformative and subversive potential of textiles, harnessing the medium to ask charged questions about power: who holds it, and how can it be challenged and reclaimed? Spanning intimate hand-crafted pieces to large-scale sculptural installations, this major exhibition brings together over 100 artworks by 50 international practitioners. Drawn to the tactile processes of stitching, weaving, braiding, beading and knotting, these artists have embraced fibre and thread to tell stories that challenge power structures, transgress boundaries and reimagine the world around them.