Eleven international artists explore the links between marginalised materials and cultural hierarchies
The participants in Connecting Threads incorporate physical and conceptual elements of textile art into painting, photography and sculpture in response to societal and political shifts.
Sam Owen Hull comments on an increasingly polarised world with the material contradictions of spontaneous painterly marks and considered hand embroidery, while Christine Niederberger interweaves unconscious readings of Abstract Expressionism as a male domain with textile elements widely perceived as female. Michael Raedecker and Tamar Mason both explore the impact of humanity on the natural world, from an urban and rural perspective, respectively.
With the majority of works in the show leaning towards more abstract and conceptual approaches, Caroline Achaintre's and Debbie Lawson's tapestries bear the closest resemblance to traditional textile art. The former creating hybrid characters by blending materials and cultural references, the latter hiding imaginary creatures in patterned carpets.
Julie Cockburn and Berend Strik both use textile techniques to add new meaning to found photographs, while Hannah Knox mirrors the meditative slowness of knitting when meticulously painting items of clothing. Kate Terry uses thread to draw physical lines into space while John Walter digitally re-engineers popular textile patterns to draw attention to the intersection of art, science, and architecture.