CTRL/Shift
by Selvedge Collaborator
This February, The National Centre for Craft & Design (NCCD) presents CTRL /Shift: New Directions in Textile Art, in partnership with The 62 Group of Textile
Artists and Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham. Innovation and transformational
practice is at the core of this unique textile exhibition, with exhibiting artists
demonstrating the creative tensions that exist between accomplished skill,
experimentation and the development of new ideas.
CTRL/Shift takes shifts and changes as its theme with artists exploring this concept in a variety of ways. Shifts may have been experienced in the approach to practice and production in relation to control; the introduction of new materials and techniques; and/or the impact of innovative ideas and evolving technologies.
Pushing the boundaries of scale at both ends of the spectrum, works range from
metres long to a few centimetres high; they are wall-hung, floor and plinth-based, two and three dimensional. The exhibition juxtaposes traditional textile and fibre
techniques - hand and machine embroidery, felting, printing, collage and basketry
alongside the latest technology informing practice, such as digital print and laser
cutting. Other works are mixed media in approach, incorporating hair, cosmetics,
scrap metal and dolls’ house furniture, ceramics, metal, stone, wood, plastic and
Perspex. Overall, there is a call to view textile art as much more than careful
stitching on fine fabrics.
The exhibition presents over 30 artworks by 25 artists, including carefully selected
collaborations between three artists who reflected on and were inspired by each
other’s practice.
2 February – 22 April 2019