Unravel - the power and politics of textiles art

This powerful exhibition at The Barbican explores how artists have used textiles to critique those in power. The pieces were collected together in themes, which included Subversive Stitch, Bearing Witness, Wound and Repair, Fabric of Everyday Life, and Borderlands (The Barbican, 2024).
Here I write about a few that relate to my thinking as a textile artist who is trying to use art to raise awareness of social justice issues.

No Chance (WHAT A YEAR) 1999 Tracey Emin

No chance (WHAT A YEAR), 1999

Tracey Emin @traceyeminstudio
b. 1963, Croydon, UK
Appliqué blanket
This blanket was stitched by Emin to reflect her feelings as a 13 year old child who had been raped. She reused fabrics that gave meaning to the work.
I chose this piece as it contained a lot of text, probably the most text in the exhibition.
While have I tried to make my text ‘perfect, Emin does not use a single font, nor create perfectly formed letters. As a consequence it has a real handwritten look that helps express her emotional rage.

Paper Speakers, 2020-21 Mounira Al Solh

Paper Speakers, 2020-21

Mounira Al Solh
b. 1978. Beirut, Lebanon
Ink and embroidery on textile
This work was made to pay tribute to the women who participated in the uprising in Lebanon 2015 and the subsequent 2019 revolution. Solh subverts a traditional craft to communicate support for women who have pushed back against expectations of their traditional place in society.
This is another piece that expresses emotion, through the contrast between the carefully drawn woman and the simple use of (readily available?) fabrics for the background and borders.

Bottari (2011-2018) Kimsooja

Bottari (2011-2018)

Kimsooja @kimsoojastudio
b. 1957 Daegu, South Korea
Bottari are cloth bundles traditionally used to transport every day objects in Korea. In this piece they are made from used Korean bedcovers and clothes.
Here they evoke displacement and migration, within the context of recent Korean history of war and famine.
This reminded me of the poem What They Took With Them: a List, by Jenifer Toksvig (2015).

Messengers of the Sun 9022, Anotnio Guzman and Iva Jankovic

Messengers of the Sun, 2022

Antonio Guzman @guzmanvisualdiary 
and Iva Jankovic @_iva_jankovic_
Indigo-painted, block printed, and embroidered textile
Indigo dyed and block-printed fabrics are used to create banners and ‘Afrimono’ – kimono-like garments. These are used to highlight the ancestral knowledge that travelled with transatlantic trade (Barbican, 2024).
Initially I was drawn to the exhibit by the indigo colour; indigo cloths are my cloths of choice, both denim and shibori dyed cottons. I was not aware of the link between indigo and enslavement before this exhibition.

From Doro Wat to Sushi and Chicken Wings and Tings, 1991 Pacita Abad

From Doro Wat to Sushi and Chicken Wings and Tings, 1991

Pacita Abad
b. 1946, Basco, Batanes, Philippines d. 2004, Singapore
Acrylic, oil, painted canvas, plastic buttons and beads on stitched and padded canvas.
Abad documented the experience of those who had left their home countries, here an immigrant from West Africa who has opened an eatery in Washington DC.
Unlike most works in the exhibition, this was hung so the back could be seen. It was wonderful to see the stitching – and the label.

From Doro Wat to Sushi and Chicken Wings and Tings, 1991 (detail on reverse)

From Doro Wat to Sushi and Chicken Wings and Tings, 1991 (reverse)

Take aways from the exhibition

I have written before about Text in Textiles and I have used large appliqué text and also small stitchwriting to include words in my quilts. I am beginning to enjoy the discovery of words almost hidden in the piece, as in Pacita Abad’s work, rather than the much larger, and perhaps more ‘shouty’ text used by Tracey Emin. There is a need to draw people in to the work, and then when they discover the words, they are given extra opportunities to understand more about the work, rather than quickly reading the large text and moving on.

Having a story to tell. Many of the pieces of work in this exhibition were about oppressed peoples and displacement. As a white middleclass woman those experiences are not mine and I cannot tell those stories. I have to find ways of expressing my thinking about social justice without seeming to be appropriating the experience of other people.

Art or craft? None of the works I engaged with in this exhibition could be described as ‘just craft’, we need to get away from this dichotomy, this exhibition shows that these artists are all skilled crafters.

References

The Barbican (2024) Unravel: Exhibition Guide | Barbican. Available at: https://www.barbican.org.uk/exhibition-guides/unravel-exhibition-guide

Toksvig, J. (2015) What they took with them, UNHCR. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/what-they-took-them .