International Stitchery
Monday, December 8th, 2008An exhibition of contemporary textiles at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. (I can’t like Manchester – it just seems a mess – I probably need to spend more time there). But the Whitworth is cool, in an old-fashioned lately modernised sort of way and has an adequate cafe. The textiles, produced by artists from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Japan and the UK were stunning. I’m always impressed by the innovation, imagination and accessibility of contemporary textile art. (in comparison, maybe, to the sort of Art that enters for the Turner Prize). Beautiful 3 dimensional highly textured pieces, not all hung vertically, using a huge variety of materials but all involving some kind of weaving/embroidery/knitting/felting/stitching. This wasn’t the Weavers’ Guild or the Embroiderers’ Guild but those organisations are also at the forefront in challenging assumptions and habits. Some institutions we think of as stuffy are far from it. Don’t forget it was the WI who booed Tony Blair when he served them up lies and platitudes at their conference when he was PM.