MARGATE.- Turner Contemporary puts making and materiality centre stage. Entangled: Threads & Making is a major exhibition of sculpture, installation, tapestry, textiles and jewellery from the early 20th century to the present day. It features over 40 international female artists who expand the possibilities of embroidery, weaving, sewing and hand-made processes, often incorporating unexpected materials such as plants, clothing, hair and bird quills.
Entangled: Threads & Making is curated by writer and critic Karen Wright, with Turner Contemporary. Wright became fascinated by the various methodologies of making she witnessed during many artist studio visits as part of her regular ‘In the Studio’ column for The Independent newspaper. The idea for Entangled: Threads & Making evolved out of these visits, in particular one with renowned American artist Kiki Smith while she was working on her epic tapestry Sky, 2012.
Grounded in the work of 20th century pioneers of textiles, fashion and handcrafted practice, such as Anni Albers, Louise Bourgeois, Sonia Delaunay, Eva Hesse and Hannah Ryggen, the exhibition traces their impact on younger generations of artists who incorporate similar materials and processes into their work. Entangled: Threads & Making also brings together 10 new works, created especially for the show. Surveying over 100 artworks created between 1918 and 2016, the exhibition aims to reveal and celebrate the compulsion to make which lies at the heart of many of these artists’ diverse and varied practices.
20th century weavers Anni Albers and Hannah Ryggen, who elevated tapestry to the status of fine art, are being shown alongside contemporary artists who are constantly reinventing the medium. Ryggen’s monumental political tapestry 6 . oktober 1942 has never been exhibited in the UK before. Since its completion in 1943, it has been hugely influential on generations of textile-based artists working in Scandinavian countries, such as Norwegian Ann Cathrin November Høibo, who uses a loom to create abstract works, incorporating natural and synthetic materials found on her travels. November Høibo is one of a number of artists who have made new work for the exhibition at Turner Contemporary. German artist Christiane Löhr creates delicate sculptures made of seeds, tree blossoms and plant matter. For Entangled , Löhr created a new work made from a column of locally sourced horsehair which spans the height of the gallery.
Both Eva Hesse and Susan Hiller began their careers as painters but went on to make experimental, handmade sculptures in the 1960s and 70s using the language of minimal and conceptual art. Entangled: Threads & Making includes a series of Hesse’s fragile forms in cheesecloth from 1969 alongside Hiller’s Painting Blocks, 1974/75, consisting of recycled canvases cut up and sewn together to form sculptural blocks. Ursula von Rydinsgvard’s Thread Terror , specially commissioned for the exhibition, is a large sculpture in cedar, carved by the artist to suggest thick thread or reams of fabric. Sonia Gomes draws on the traditions of indigenous cultures in her native Brazil for her colourful, abstract sculptures made by binding different fabrics around wire, whilst Phyllida Barlow recycles bits of timber, plywood and other discarded or everyday materials to create her brightly painted assemblages such as Untitled: Broken Shelf (2015).
A costume for Fokine's ballet Cleopatre designed by Sonia Delauney in 1918 is shown in dialogue with the work of contemporary artists Aiko Tezuka, Arna Óttarsdóttir and Maria Papadimitriou, who work with clothing and textiles in various ways — the latter producing garments for or with others, as demonstrated by her collection of Roma coats included in the exhibition. Finally, a new interactive commission from Paola Anziché takes the form of a group of suspended tubes in raffia, wool, jute and other natural fibres, inviting viewers to walk through and within the sculptures, to physically get inside her chosen materials and providing an immersive exit from the show.
A new publication accompanies the exhibition, with essays and interviews by Ann Coxon, Stina Högkvist, Siri Hustvedt, Kathryn Lloyd, Rosa Martínez, Marit Paasche, Frances Morris and Karen Wright.
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Karen Wright, Curator says: “When we first set out to create Entangled: Threads & Making, over 3 years ago, I was initially overwhelmed by how many artists wanted to take part in the show. It gave the idea currency, at a time when little had been done in investigating this area both in terms of gender, but also in terms of materials. For me, the show is an opportunity to re- evaluate the political status of women in the market place as well as the way that they use materials and express their concerns.”
Sarah Martin, Head of Exhibitions at Turner Contemporary says: “Entangled: Threads & Making promises to be a rich show with a diverse range of artists. A number of new works have been made – and are still being made – for the exhibition and the positioning of these in dialogue with each other, and with 20th century pioneers will make for new and intriguing parallels. Whilst they all have ‘making’ in common, they explore it in entirely different ways.”
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