‘Unravel The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art’
When is a sweater not a sweater? When it’s a tool of active resistance and revolution, according to the Barbican, because its new show is all about textiles and fabric, and how artists have used them to fight against injustice. Fabric as a medium has been relegated to mere ‘craft’ throughout much of history, the idea of elevating it to high art kicks back against convention and patriarchy. So you could argue – and boy, do they – that just using textiles in your art is a political act. But it’s not always a particularly convincing argument. There’s plenty of good stuff here. Tracey Emin’s throw covered in phrases from her 13-year-old self is shocking, overwrought and painful. Quilts from the Gee’s Bend Quilting Collective in Alabama by Loretta Pettway are gorgeous containers of history, fabric as narrative tradition handed down from generation to generation. Faith Ringgold uses quilts to tell modern stories of everyday African American life. Harmony Hammond’s canvas is draped in blood-drenched bandages. Teresa Margolles’ patchwork tapestries – one bearing the blood of a woman assassinated in Panama, the other laid on the ground where Eric Garner was shot in New York in 2014 – are viscerally powerful testimonies to death. There’s violence, pain and suffering, but survival, beauty and history too. Viscerally powerful testimonies to death Downstairs, Solange Pessoa’s blobby sack-forms stretch across a wall, all earthy and bodily, and a vast Magdalena Abakanowicz woollen constr