It has become a bit of a tradition for large museums and galleries all over the world organising blockbuster exhibitions linked with fashion. But it must be said that there are more compact yet equally valid exhibitions and events in smaller institutions that often allow visitors to learn more from the pieces on display.Messums Wiltshire (Place Farm, Court Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire, UK), a multi-purpose gallery and arts centre located in a very unique venue - a recently restored 13th century monastic barn reputed to be the largest of its type in the UK - is for example launching next month "Material: Textile" (from 9th March to 28th April), an event located in two venues belonging to this institution - the Tithe Barn and Long Gallery, a converted former dairy. Traditionally associated with applied arts and crafts, textiles have gone a long way in the last few decades also thanks to artists who have used this medium in their practices, coming up with very and original unique pieces.
"Materials" looks at the importance, function and power of textile pieces in ancient civilisations via fine Tibetan saddle rugs and Inca tunics and panels characterised by geometric motifs that seem to find connections and correspondences in Anni Albers' works. Ancient civilisations employed these pieces as tax and currency, and therefore considered them as prized possessions. Gradually the exhibition moves onto an exploration of textiles in connection with culture and even politics in modern times.
Ancient techniques such as weaving, tapestry, embroidery and knitting are indeed employed by contemporary artists in intriguing ways, often as if yarns and threads were paints.
Another aspect explored by the exhibition is the process of commissioning a piece to a particular workshop: the connections and collaborations between Dovecot Studios and artists such as Norwegian Magne Furuholmen (better known as A-ha's former keyboardist) or Christopher Farr and Equator Projects are analysed through some of the best pieces made by master weavers in the last few years. It is indeed thanks to their skills that some contemporary artists have been able to translate their works into another medium.
There is more to learn from the section dedicated to collaborations between artists such as George Braque, Barbara Hepworth, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Louise Bourgeois and fabricators in the collection of Modernist silks and fabrics from Gray M.C.A. (the section of the exhibition on show in the Long Gallery that includes post-war textiles and fabrics is co-curated with the gallery).
The section about modern tapestries includes instead pieces by Goshka Macuga, Francesca Lowe and Laure Prouvost as well as knitted pieces by Freddie Robins, whose work explores the area between leisure and labour within historical textile discourse.
In some cases these pieces can be used as comments to the times we are living in or break the boundaries between different times, representing the past, the present and future.
Francesca Lowe's 2008 tapestry "Trump" echoes the darkness of Old Master paintings with their gloomy hues and shows an epic struggle between two male forms - one dark, one light - representing two states of being or egos. The piece was made by weavers based in a small village in northern China.
Macuga's "Make Tofu Not War", a 3D tapestry first shown at Frieze London in 2018, layers instead visual references including the Tower of Babel, Noah's Ark, a cosmonaut, a space capsule and environmental protesters dressed as animals, and invites visitors to consider our modern world and society, pondering about the dire consequences of our collective behaviour.
Trockel, a German conceptual artist broke art/design barriers in the fine art world in the 1980s with a series of computer-generated knitted works, which featured familiar yet enigmatic emblems including the Woolmark logo and the Playboy Bunny symbol. Her rug "Made In Western Germany" incorporates well-known logos and symbols with a distinctively political as well as aesthetic impulse.
In a similar vein, American-born British-based artist Christian Newby's work "GlassyEyedCult / Escoria! / JulioFlores / TheSpinners" wonders if we can retool or re-purpose an industrial hand-held carpet tufting gun into a sort of convivial tool.
There are some surprises awaiting visitors in the barn where an immersive installation by Danish designer Henrik Vibskov is featured. Entitled "Onion Farm", the piece was first shown last year at the Victoria & Albert Museum during London Design Week.
The structure is made with colourful industrial brushes and red fabric onions and reproduces a sort of modern and surreal carwash-like tunnel that contrasts with the space of the Medieval barn where it is installed. The piece will be the runway for a catwalk show headlined by Henrik Vibskov on 26th April 2019.
"Material: Textile" is indeed accompanied by a series of intriguing talks and events: apart from this catwalk show, there will also be workshops focused on wool and natural dyeing (with Zoe Ritchie), weaving and sustainability (with Catarina Riccabona) and mending with Celia Pym, plus talks between artists and Dovecot Studios curator Kate Grenyer.
Last but not least, the exhibition is a chance to discover the architecture of Messums Wiltshire, a hallowed, ascetic space that may not be as grand as the halls of huge museums hosting blockbuster exhibitions, but that allows visitors to to grasp the essence and beauty of handmade artworks among its ancient hand-built structures of stone and wood.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.