From 13 February 2024, 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.
Organised thematically, with artists placed in intergenerational and transcultural dialogues, Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art considers the various ways in which artists have used textiles to speak to stories of marginalisation and exclusion, as well as emancipatory joy and transcendence. The show’s earliest works were created in the 1960s, when many artists were pushing the sculptural boundaries of the medium and challenging the limiting parameters of ‘fine art’ and ‘craft’. Expanding across both time and geography, the exhibition presents six themes – ‘Subversive Stitch’, ‘Fabric of Everyday Life’, ‘Borderlands’, ‘Bearing Witness’, ‘Wound and Repair’ and ‘Ancestral Threads’ – which together explore the role of textiles in artistic practices that challenge dominant narratives, push up against regimes of power, and manifest an enduring spirit of hope.
https://www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/unravel-the-power-and-politics-of-textiles-in-art
Participating artists:
Pacita Abad (The Philippines / USA), Magdalena Abakanowicz (Poland), Igshaan Adams (South Africa), Ghada Amer (Egypt/France), Arpilleristas (Chile), Mercedes Azpilicueta (Argentina), Yto Barrada (Morocco), Kevin Beasley (USA), Sanford Biggers (USA), Louise Bourgeois (France / USA), Diedrick Brackens (USA), Jagoda Buić (Croatia), Margarita Cabrera (Mexico / USA), Feliciano Centurión (Paraguay), Judy Chicago (USA), Myrlande Constant (Haiti), Cian Dayrit (The Philippines), Tracey Emin (UK), Jeffrey Gibson (USA), Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic (The Netherlands / Panama and The Netherlands / Yugoslavia), Harmony Hammond (USA), Sheila Hicks (USA), Nicholas Hlobo (South Africa), Yee I-Lann (Malaysia), Kimsooja (South Korea), Acaye Kerunen (Uganda), José Leonilson (Brazil), Tau Lewis (Canada), Ibrahim Mahama (Ghana), Teresa Margolles (Mexico), Georgina Maxim (Zimbabwe), Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (Poland), Mrinalini Mukherjee (India), Violeta Parra (Chile), Solange Pessoa (Brazil), Loretta Pettway (Gee’s Bend) (USA), Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín (Guatemala), Faith Ringgold (USA), LJ Roberts (USA), Zamthingla Ruivah (India), Hannah Ryggen (Norway), Tschabalala Self (USA), Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (UK), Mounira Al Solh (Lebanon), Angela Su (Hong Kong), Lenore Tawney (USA), T. Vinoja (Sri Lanka), Cecilia Vicuña (Chile), Billie Zangewa (Malawi / South Africa), and Sarah Zapata (Peru / USA).
