FEMALE FORCES
We’ve marked International Women’s Day here at Selvedge by celebrating some of the most powerful and forward thinking females in the art and craft industries today. Here, you can read an exclusive preview from Liz Hoggard’s review of the exhibition ‘Entangled Threads and Meaning’ - the all-female show on now at the Turner Contemporary in Margate…
For years writer and critic Karen Wright compiled a regular “In the Studio” column for The Independent newspaper. Visiting over 200 artists she became fascinated by the making processes that she witnessed first-hand. At Kiki Smith’s studio in New York, she watched her epic tapestry “Sky” being drawn and collaged, which planted the seed for a show. The result is Entangled: a major exhibition of sculpture, installation, tapestry, textiles and jewellery from 40 international female artists using thread (knitting, embroidery, weaving, sewing) in their work.
Wright and Turner Contemporary intended the show to be mixed, but gradually began to feel that women work differently from men. “What surprised and thrilled me was the willingness of artists to participate in an exhibition of all female artists,” Wright writes. However, today of course, three years after the show was first conceived, we’re now in a new landscape of gender protests; women’s marches with embroidered banners and knitted pink ‘pussy’ hats.
Artists range from 20th century to present day, and Tracey Emin is notably absent. Wright wanted to highlight more up-and-coming artists from different generations and cultures who are pushing the boundaries between craft, art and design. Many use unusual materials such as horse hair, bird quills, burned cigarette papers and even yoghurt.
There are pieces by art superstars (Louise Bourgeois, Mona Hatoum, Eve Hesse) as well as communal art projects made by local volunteers. Every space of the gallery has been colonised. Samara Scott has taken over the lift with an explosion of yoghurt mixed into plaster, carpet and food colouring. Kashif Nadim Chaudry’s kitsch but affecting “Three Graces” (which he describes as a series of queer assemblages) dominates the foyer of the David Chipperfield designed museum...
This review will be published in its entirety in the upcoming issue of Selvedge magazine number 76; The Trade Winds Issue, coming out this May.
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
https://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/entangled-threads-making
For years writer and critic Karen Wright compiled a regular “In the Studio” column for The Independent newspaper. Visiting over 200 artists she became fascinated by the making processes that she witnessed first-hand. At Kiki Smith’s studio in New York, she watched her epic tapestry “Sky” being drawn and collaged, which planted the seed for a show. The result is Entangled: a major exhibition of sculpture, installation, tapestry, textiles and jewellery from 40 international female artists using thread (knitting, embroidery, weaving, sewing) in their work.
Wright and Turner Contemporary intended the show to be mixed, but gradually began to feel that women work differently from men. “What surprised and thrilled me was the willingness of artists to participate in an exhibition of all female artists,” Wright writes. However, today of course, three years after the show was first conceived, we’re now in a new landscape of gender protests; women’s marches with embroidered banners and knitted pink ‘pussy’ hats.
Artists range from 20th century to present day, and Tracey Emin is notably absent. Wright wanted to highlight more up-and-coming artists from different generations and cultures who are pushing the boundaries between craft, art and design. Many use unusual materials such as horse hair, bird quills, burned cigarette papers and even yoghurt.
There are pieces by art superstars (Louise Bourgeois, Mona Hatoum, Eve Hesse) as well as communal art projects made by local volunteers. Every space of the gallery has been colonised. Samara Scott has taken over the lift with an explosion of yoghurt mixed into plaster, carpet and food colouring. Kashif Nadim Chaudry’s kitsch but affecting “Three Graces” (which he describes as a series of queer assemblages) dominates the foyer of the David Chipperfield designed museum...
This review will be published in its entirety in the upcoming issue of Selvedge magazine number 76; The Trade Winds Issue, coming out this May.
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
https://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/entangled-threads-making