Overview

This panel explores the intersection of contemporary art practices, cultural identity and collective memory. It reflects specifically on the tangible materiality of textiles through an examination of weaving, embroidery and tailoring practices. It also reflects on how the raw material resources that are central to the global system of extractive capitalism (and to the wars waged to maintain it) are incorporated into artistic works.

This session brings together artists and collectives working across diverse global locales to unravel the common thread of identity resilience through these enduring material art practices. It considers the ways in which textile art can preserve and transmit cultural histories through novel forms of storytelling.

What is the relationship between memory, materiality and histories of struggle? How do questions of sustainability shape contemporary practices within the textile industry? How does the persistence of collective practices centred on material culture help defy forces of neo-colonial destruction and erasure?