Jeffrey Gibson
Prism, 2018
Repurposed quilt, printed chiffon, polyester organza, printed polyester, polyester satin, polyester batting, nylon ribbon, vintage appliqués, vintage whimsies, vintage brass stamping, rhinestone appliqués, vintage beaded hair barrette, assorted glass, plastic and stone beads, artificial sinew and tipi poles
Speak to Me so That I Can Understand, 2018
Acrylic paint on canvas, vintage Seminole patchwork, plastic beads, glass beads, nylon, water-based ink on sublimated polyester, metal jingles, tipi poles and deer hide
We Play Endlessly, 2018
Neoprene, printed polyester, silk, printed chiffon, canvas, polyester satin, brass grommets, nylon ribbon, acrylic paint, polyester laces, glass and plastic beads, artificial sinew and tipi poles
People Like Us, 2019
Vinyl, neoprene, printed polyester, glass beads, brass grommets, nylon, printed cotton, acrylic paint, deer hide and tipi poles
Gibson draws on his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage and the Native American women in his family whose textile work sustained them. These four works were partly inspired by garments worn by dancers in Native American powwow ceremonies, particularly those worn by the Northern Paiute people as spiritual protection in the pacifist Ghost Dance movement of the late nineteenth century. They also incorporate contemporary references: the phrase ‘People Like Us’ derives from a 1965 print by artist and nun Sister Corita Kent, while ‘We Play Endlessly’ pays homage to Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós. Gibson embraces hybridity, seeing his practice as ‘a mash-up of intertribal aesthetics’ in resistance to essentialist understandings of Indigeneity. Gibson links overcoming his rejection of craft as a student to coming to terms with his sexuality as a gay man. He highlights ‘the nonbinary gender roles found in many indigenous cultures’ and his garments are deliberately ungendered. Vibrating with colour, texture and animated potential, they have previously been installed hanging in procession-like formations, as shown here, or activated by performers.*
From the exhibition
Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art
(February – May 2024)
Textiles are vital to our lives. We are swaddled in them when we’re born, we wrap our bodies in them every day, and we’re shrouded in them when we die.
What does it mean to imagine a needle, a loom or a garment as a tool of resistance? How can textiles unpack, question, unspool, unravel and therefore reimagine the world around us?
Since the 1960s, textiles have become increasingly present in artistic practices for subversive ends. This is significant as the medium has been historically undervalued within the hierarchies of Western art history. Textiles have been considered ‘craft’ in opposition to definitions of ‘fine art’, gendered as feminine and marginalised by scholars and the art market. The 50 international artists in this show challenge these classifications, harnessing the medium to speak powerfully about intimate, everyday stories as well as wider socio-political narratives, teasing out these entangled concerns through a stitch, a knot, a braid, through the warp and the weft. These artists defy traditional expectations of textiles, embracing abstraction or figuration to push the boundaries of the medium. They draw on its material history to reveal ideas relating to gender, labour, value, ecology, ancestral knowledge, and histories of oppression, extraction and trade.
Rather than dictating a chronological history of fibre art, the exhibition is organised in thematic dialogues between artists — across both generations and geographies — to explore how artists have embraced textiles to critique or push up against regimes of power. Some artists work alone with solitary, near-meditative practices, while others reflect the shared approach that the medium often invites, working with collaborators in acts of community and solidarity. Spanning intimate hand-crafted pieces to large-scale sculptural installations, these artworks communicate multi-layered stories about lived experience, invoking the vital issues embedded in fibre and thread.
[*Barbican Centre]
Taken at the Barbican Centre
Jeffrey Gibson
Prism, 2018
Repurposed quilt, printed chiffon, polyester organza, printed polyester, polyester satin, polyester batting, nylon ribbon, vintage appliqués, vintage whimsies, vintage brass stamping, rhinestone appliqués, vintage beaded hair barrette, assorted glass, plastic and stone beads, artificial sinew and tipi poles
Speak to Me so That I Can Understand, 2018
Acrylic paint on canvas, vintage Seminole patchwork, plastic beads, glass beads, nylon, water-based ink on sublimated polyester, metal jingles, tipi poles and deer hide
We Play Endlessly, 2018
Neoprene, printed polyester, silk, printed chiffon, canvas, polyester satin, brass grommets, nylon ribbon, acrylic paint, polyester laces, glass and plastic beads, artificial sinew and tipi poles
People Like Us, 2019
Vinyl, neoprene, printed polyester, glass beads, brass grommets, nylon, printed cotton, acrylic paint, deer hide and tipi poles
Gibson draws on his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage and the Native American women in his family whose textile work sustained them. These four works were partly inspired by garments worn by dancers in Native American powwow ceremonies, particularly those worn by the Northern Paiute people as spiritual protection in the pacifist Ghost Dance movement of the late nineteenth century. They also incorporate contemporary references: the phrase ‘People Like Us’ derives from a 1965 print by artist and nun Sister Corita Kent, while ‘We Play Endlessly’ pays homage to Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós. Gibson embraces hybridity, seeing his practice as ‘a mash-up of intertribal aesthetics’ in resistance to essentialist understandings of Indigeneity. Gibson links overcoming his rejection of craft as a student to coming to terms with his sexuality as a gay man. He highlights ‘the nonbinary gender roles found in many indigenous cultures’ and his garments are deliberately ungendered. Vibrating with colour, texture and animated potential, they have previously been installed hanging in procession-like formations, as shown here, or activated by performers.*
From the exhibition
Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art
(February – May 2024)
Textiles are vital to our lives. We are swaddled in them when we’re born, we wrap our bodies in them every day, and we’re shrouded in them when we die.
What does it mean to imagine a needle, a loom or a garment as a tool of resistance? How can textiles unpack, question, unspool, unravel and therefore reimagine the world around us?
Since the 1960s, textiles have become increasingly present in artistic practices for subversive ends. This is significant as the medium has been historically undervalued within the hierarchies of Western art history. Textiles have been considered ‘craft’ in opposition to definitions of ‘fine art’, gendered as feminine and marginalised by scholars and the art market. The 50 international artists in this show challenge these classifications, harnessing the medium to speak powerfully about intimate, everyday stories as well as wider socio-political narratives, teasing out these entangled concerns through a stitch, a knot, a braid, through the warp and the weft. These artists defy traditional expectations of textiles, embracing abstraction or figuration to push the boundaries of the medium. They draw on its material history to reveal ideas relating to gender, labour, value, ecology, ancestral knowledge, and histories of oppression, extraction and trade.
Rather than dictating a chronological history of fibre art, the exhibition is organised in thematic dialogues between artists — across both generations and geographies — to explore how artists have embraced textiles to critique or push up against regimes of power. Some artists work alone with solitary, near-meditative practices, while others reflect the shared approach that the medium often invites, working with collaborators in acts of community and solidarity. Spanning intimate hand-crafted pieces to large-scale sculptural installations, these artworks communicate multi-layered stories about lived experience, invoking the vital issues embedded in fibre and thread.
[*Barbican Centre]
Taken at the Barbican Centre