Cut Cloth: Contemporary Textiles and Feminism at The Portico Library
Creative Tourist
Cut Cloth: Contemporary Textiles and Feminism is an exhibition, publication and series of workshops that examine the shifting role of textiles within contemporary feminist art practices. Cut Cloth contemplates the rise in popularity of art textiles and the resulting impact on textile’s value as a specifically feminist mode of expression.
Once a belittled and marginalized medium, textile artists looked to both subvert and celebrate textiles in order to disrupt the very femininities that it played a role in constructing. This project of reclamation and elevation is by no means finished; textiles still sit in an ambiguous space between art, craft, private and public space. However, the increasing popularity and commercialisation of textiles, as well as feminism in art and culture, must be reflected upon. Cut Cloth looks toward strategies that respond to these new challenges, drawing upon feminist legacies whilst acknowledging the shifting politics of cloth in contemporary culture.
