UNPICKED AND DISMANTLED
curated by DANICA MAIER and GERARD WILLIAMS
1 December 2007 - 2 March 2008
Current textile studio practices go far beyond making and technique, they transcend object and material. In general terms, history, language and politics are implicated and embodied. Craft, domesticity and identity, including gender issues and aspects of post-feminism might be some of the more obvious interlinked territories addressed through the use of, and reference to, textiles in art practice today.
Many artists are now working with both old and new technologies in ways that relate deliberately and directly to textile-rooted issues. No surprise this, as textiles have been associated with technology since the beginning of technology itself. Artists have developed methodologies that deploy obsessive, repetitive making or actions, perhaps including reference to and use of (surface) pattern. Construction and deconstruction, dismantling and unpicking are put to work. Technological interfaces, new to old and old to new, including incompatibilities, glitches, and the product of breakdown have become artists‘ tools.
This territory of ideas and concerns is explored and communicated through a multitude of material outcomes: painting, performance, photography, film, drawing and installation works can all speak as much of textile concerns in these ways as weaving, felting and embroidery. Artists who use such diverse media and means to talk effectively and in new ways about the ideologies, methodologies, histories and values behind textiles will be our particular focus for this exhibition
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