Arnolfini announces summer textiles exhibition – Threads: ‘Breathing stories into materials’

A thread is a line that links the past with the present, knotting personal and shared experiences together…

This is the introduction to Arnolfini’s major summer textiles exhibition for 2023, curated by world-renowned UK textile artist Alice Kettle and bringing together 21 contemporary international artists and makers specialising in the medium.

Techniques on show include weaving and spinning, rug-making, stitching and embroidery, print, knit, threading, mending and found materials, many of which have been handed down and reinvented between generations.

Anya Paintsil, God will punish him (2021) – photo: courtesy of the artist and Ed Cross Gallery

Celia Pym, Hope’s Sweater, 1951 (2011) – photo: Michele Panzeri

Esna Su, The Burden II, My Trousseau – photo: courtesy of the artist

For Kettle however, the power of textiles is far deeper than its artistic prowess or aesthetic appeal; rather, it extends to an ability to “embed” memory within the making process, telling stories and connecting with others, interweaving with one another just as single threads are twisted into a yarn.

The many and varied narratives explored within the eclectic collection of works on show take on migration, politics, post-colonialism, identity, gender, community, sustainability and the environment.

“Through these acts of making, each artist pushes the mediums’ narrative potential to ‘remember’, asking us to question where, and how, and with what the work has been created,” say the exhibition notes.

Anna Perach and Anousha Payne, Backward Eyes (2021) – photo: Benjamin Deakin, courtesy of Cooklatham Gallery

Caroline Achaintre, Croaker (detail) (2022) – photo: courtesy of the artist

Will Cruickshank, Wound Frame No. 3 (2022) – photo: courtesy of the artist

“Threads are unravelled as new stories become intertwined, and audiences are invited to engage with their own memories through material and making.”

The participating artists are Caroline Achaintre, Mounira Al Solh, Ifeoma U. Anyaeji, Olga de Amaral, Will Cruikshank, Monika Grašienė, Lubaina Himid, Young In Hong, Raisa Kabir, Alice Kettle, Anya Paintsil, Anousha Payne, David Penny, Anna Perach, Celia Pym, Richard McVetis, Ibrahim Mahama, Farwa Moledina, Lucy Orta, Yinka Shonibare and Esna Su.

Moledina and Hong are showing newly commissioned pieces; Anyaeji will be exhibiting a reimagining of the work Ezuhu ezu, made during her residency in Bristol as the first recipient of the Arnolfini ACBMT International Artist Residency Award.

Raisa Kabir, Untitled I Flax (2020) – photo: courtesy of the artist and Indigo + Madder

Yinka Shonibare, The British Library Collection (2014) – photo: courtesy of the artist

Mounira Al Solhl, Mina El Shourouk ila Al Fahmah (2019) – photo: courtesy of the artist

The exhibition will benefit from a wide supporting programme of engagement activities and workshops, from Celia Pym’s Mending Project to participatory artworks, interactive activities from Bristol Weaving Mill, talks, music, dance and film projects, and family sessions with Let’s Make Art.

Through audio stories and a digital memory map focused on the sites of The Great Western Cotton Factory and Bristol’s new ‘textile quarter’, visitors will also be able to explore the city’s own complex textile history, as well as looking to its place as a pioneer of the medium today and into the future.

Arnolfini is also running an Art Fund crowd funder to create a new textile workshop for summer 2023, building a “gigantic, interactive weaving machine in our theatre space for everyone to use”.

Lubaina Himid, The Grab Test (2019) – photo: courtesy of the artist

David Penny, Still taken from Screen for another focus (2018) – photo: courtesy of the artist

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr5msL5uVT0/?hl=en

Threads: ‘Breathing stories into materials’ is at Arnolfini from July 8-October 1 (Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm). The exhibition is free and will be bookable in advance, though walk-ins are welcome. More information is available at www.arnolfini.org.uk.

Main photo: Theo Christelis (Viento 2, 2014, Olga de Amaral. Courtesy Lisson Gallery)

Read more: Arnolfini to open ‘Adore: the third exhibition from Bristol-born Garry Fabian Miller’

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