Image credits: Kate Egan & Brendan Dawes, The Jack Plug Universe (2018)
TEXTILE AND PLACE
23rd and 24th April 2020
Manchester School of Art
Manchester Metropolitan University
23rd and 24th April 2020
Manchester School of Art
Manchester Metropolitan University
Textile and Place 2020 explores the politics of textiles. Hosted by Manchester School of Art, the conference builds upon the debates from the first Textile and Place conference which took place in 2018.
The conference explores how textiles describes and maps places through traditional methods of making, through memory and through site-specific and community-based practices. It examines how textiles carries within its fabric and in its production, the stories of trade, the transmission of histories, the crossing of cultural boundaries, of migration, and postcolonialism. We use the word politics as a broad term to indicate how textiles is implicated in particular places and is part of the relationships between groups or organisations and used to confront issues of power. Textiles can fix us to a place and also be part of the process of making change.
The conference seeks to examine how textiles enables connections between sociability and communities; is a medium of protest and engages with alternative narratives; participates in economies of production, and the environment. Providing context for discussion is Manchester’s rich textiles histories as well as today’s political challenges which are contributing to shaping our everyday lives.
WE ARE PLEASE TO ANNOUNCE THAT MARIA BALSHAW, DIRECTOR of TATE, AND ROSY GREENLEES, DIRECTOR of CRAFT COUNCIL, WILL INTRODUCE THE CONFERENCE ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY RESPECTIVELY.
The conference explores how textiles describes and maps places through traditional methods of making, through memory and through site-specific and community-based practices. It examines how textiles carries within its fabric and in its production, the stories of trade, the transmission of histories, the crossing of cultural boundaries, of migration, and postcolonialism. We use the word politics as a broad term to indicate how textiles is implicated in particular places and is part of the relationships between groups or organisations and used to confront issues of power. Textiles can fix us to a place and also be part of the process of making change.
The conference seeks to examine how textiles enables connections between sociability and communities; is a medium of protest and engages with alternative narratives; participates in economies of production, and the environment. Providing context for discussion is Manchester’s rich textiles histories as well as today’s political challenges which are contributing to shaping our everyday lives.
WE ARE PLEASE TO ANNOUNCE THAT MARIA BALSHAW, DIRECTOR of TATE, AND ROSY GREENLEES, DIRECTOR of CRAFT COUNCIL, WILL INTRODUCE THE CONFERENCE ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY RESPECTIVELY.
KEYNOTES
Dr. Fionna Barber and Jools Gilson
Dr Fionna Barber is Reader in Art History at the Manchester School of Art. She is a contributor to Textile, Community, Controversy: the Knitting Map (eds. Jools Gilson and Nicola Moffatt, Bloomsbury 2019) and her research interests include the politics of feminist art practice, political contexts for art in Ireland since the early twentieth century, and the development of feminist temporalities. She has published widely on these and other areas of contemporary and twentieth century art practice. Her publications include Art in Ireland since 1910 (Reaktion Books 2013), the collection Ireland and the North co-edited with Heidi Hansson and Sara Dybris McQuaid (Peter Lang 2019) and ‘Brexit Wounds: Cultural responses to leaving the European Union’, a special edition of Open Arts Journal (Autumn 2019) co-edited with Eleanor Byrne. She is also the curator of the exhibition ‘Elliptical Affinities: Irish Women Artists and the Politics of the Female Body 1985-present’ for Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Ireland (16 November 2019- 25 January 2020) and Limerick City Art Gallery, (6 February – 12 April 2020)
Jools Gilson is an artist, scholar and broadcaster. She works across multiple disciplines including choreography, performance, public and installation art, creative writing and radio broadcasting. She directed the dance theatre company half/angel from 1995 to 2006, and since 2010 has made creative radio for RTÉ and the BBC. Her texts, choreography, installation and radio work have been performed, exhibited and broadcast internationally. She taught performance practices at the University of Hull and Dartington College of Arts before moving to Ireland in 1996. She is Professor of Creative Practice and Head of the School of Film, Music & Theatre at University College Cork.
Jessica Hemmings
Jessica Hemmings writes about textiles. Her editorial and curatorial project, Cultural Threads, is a book about postcolonial thinking and contemporary textile practice (Bloomsbury: 2015) accompanied by a travelling exhibition Migrations (2015-2017). She is Professor of Crafts & Vice-Prefekt of Research at the Academy of Design & Crafts (HDK), University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Assadour Markarov
Professor in Fibre Art, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou; Curator of Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art 2016.
Vic McEwan
Australian artist Vic McEwan is the curator of Tension(s) 2020, the Tamworth Textiles Triennial. He is the Artistic Director of The Cad Factory, with 15 years experience creating in-depth socially engaged arts practice. He is a board member of Music NSW, the peak body for Music in NSW, and sits on the NSW/ACT Arts and Health Leadership Group. Vic is in his second year as a PhD Candidate as a Contemporary Artist in The Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney.
Dr. Fionna Barber and Jools Gilson
Dr Fionna Barber is Reader in Art History at the Manchester School of Art. She is a contributor to Textile, Community, Controversy: the Knitting Map (eds. Jools Gilson and Nicola Moffatt, Bloomsbury 2019) and her research interests include the politics of feminist art practice, political contexts for art in Ireland since the early twentieth century, and the development of feminist temporalities. She has published widely on these and other areas of contemporary and twentieth century art practice. Her publications include Art in Ireland since 1910 (Reaktion Books 2013), the collection Ireland and the North co-edited with Heidi Hansson and Sara Dybris McQuaid (Peter Lang 2019) and ‘Brexit Wounds: Cultural responses to leaving the European Union’, a special edition of Open Arts Journal (Autumn 2019) co-edited with Eleanor Byrne. She is also the curator of the exhibition ‘Elliptical Affinities: Irish Women Artists and the Politics of the Female Body 1985-present’ for Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Ireland (16 November 2019- 25 January 2020) and Limerick City Art Gallery, (6 February – 12 April 2020)
Jools Gilson is an artist, scholar and broadcaster. She works across multiple disciplines including choreography, performance, public and installation art, creative writing and radio broadcasting. She directed the dance theatre company half/angel from 1995 to 2006, and since 2010 has made creative radio for RTÉ and the BBC. Her texts, choreography, installation and radio work have been performed, exhibited and broadcast internationally. She taught performance practices at the University of Hull and Dartington College of Arts before moving to Ireland in 1996. She is Professor of Creative Practice and Head of the School of Film, Music & Theatre at University College Cork.
Jessica Hemmings
Jessica Hemmings writes about textiles. Her editorial and curatorial project, Cultural Threads, is a book about postcolonial thinking and contemporary textile practice (Bloomsbury: 2015) accompanied by a travelling exhibition Migrations (2015-2017). She is Professor of Crafts & Vice-Prefekt of Research at the Academy of Design & Crafts (HDK), University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Assadour Markarov
Professor in Fibre Art, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou; Curator of Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art 2016.
Vic McEwan
Australian artist Vic McEwan is the curator of Tension(s) 2020, the Tamworth Textiles Triennial. He is the Artistic Director of The Cad Factory, with 15 years experience creating in-depth socially engaged arts practice. He is a board member of Music NSW, the peak body for Music in NSW, and sits on the NSW/ACT Arts and Health Leadership Group. Vic is in his second year as a PhD Candidate as a Contemporary Artist in The Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney.
We would like to thank the peer review panel for their work and support: Dr Claire Barber, Dr Sian Bonnell, Professor Steve Dixon, Professor Kate Fletcher, Professor Catherine Harper, Professor Alice Kettle, Penny Macbeth, Professor Lesley Millar, Dr Annie Shaw.
REGISTRATION WILL OPEN by END OF FEBRUARY 2020
Tickets:
General admission: £125
All Students and MMU staff: £75
Conference Dinner at HOME (optional): £25 (3 course + wine)
Tickets:
General admission: £125
All Students and MMU staff: £75
Conference Dinner at HOME (optional): £25 (3 course + wine)
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