Start the weekend early with our Thursday Lates – a series of sociable, after work and late night openings that are the perfect place to meet up with friends, explore the gallery and enjoy a specially curated selection of talks, performances, film screenings, live music and artist interventions.
All events are FREE - unless otherwise stated.
Cut Cloth
6 July, 5pm - 9pm
Free, no need to book
An evening to celebrate Cut Cloth, an exhibition, publication and series of workshops that examine the shifting role of textiles within contemporary feminist art practices.
Exploring the Archive: Feminism and Textiles
5pm – 7pm, Study Centre
A unique opportunity to explore the history of feminism through the Whitworth’s collection with curator, Uthra Rajgopal. The session reflects upon the legacy of textile programming at the Whitworth from the pioneering two-part exhibition in conjunction with the Corner House The Subversive Stich 1988. The project was conceived and curated by Jennifer Harris consisting of Embroidery in Women’s Lives 1300 – 1900 at the Whitworth and Women and Textiles Today curated by Pennina Barnett and Bev Bytheway at Cornerhouse. These exhibitions explored ideas raised in Roszika Parker’s landmark book The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine that theorized the relationship between femininity and textiles. Subsequently in 2015 Jennifer Harris curated Art_Textiles showcasing a vast range of international artists concerned with the conceptual value of cloth, its ability to make the ordinary into the extra ordinary and challenging the hierarchies of mediums in art.
Cut Cloth Book Launch
7pm – 9pm
Official launch of the publication Cut Cloth: Contemporary Textiles and Feminism with short introduction to the project from Sarah-Joy Ford.
A short talk will be screened from Professor Griselda Pollock celebrating the legacy of Roszika Parker’s seminal book The Subversive Stich.
The launch is curated by Manchester based collective Collar. The evening will include a complimentary drink on arrival. The cocktails have been designed by Collar in response to the project, and the Whitworth Archive. There will be an opportunity to purchase the book and view collaborative work made by members of the public during a workshop at The Portico Library
Cut Cloth contemplates the rise in popularity of art textiles and its impact on its value as a specifically feminist mode of expression. Once a belittled and marginalized medium, it was a radical act itself to bring women’s work into the gallery space. Artists looked to both subvert and celebrate textiles in order to disrupt the very femininities that it played a role in constructing.
This project of reclamation and elevation is by no means finished: textiles continue to oscillate between art, craft, private and public space.
However the increasing popularity and commercialisation of textiles, and of feminism in art and culture must be reflected upon. Cut clothlooks toward strategies that respond to these new challenges, drawing upon feminist legacies whilst acknowledging the shifting politics of cloth in contemporary culture.
