Exhibition: Textiles – Art and the Social Fabric
M HKA, Antwerpen
11 September 2009 - 03 January 2010
©image: M HKA/CC
*Textiles Art and the Social Fabric* is an exhibition of artist who use textiles materials or related concepts, tapping this medium’s potential to communicate complex layers of social meaning and to address the political as it appears in subjects such as labour, culture, identity, protest and display. Textiles are positioned close to the body but expand outwards to occupy civic space; they connect to human subjectivity through clothing and gesture, to the expression of political ideas in flags and banners, to the built environment in relation to architecture, and to the economy through processes of production and the movement of trade. Although situated on the margins, textiles have also been linked to genealogies of art history for example through royal tapestries, feminist movements such as fibre art and Modernist aesthetic as they have been applied to textile design. With a conceptual rather than medium specific focus, this exhibition features different kinds of work including sculpture, installation, tapestry, books, banners, photography and film. It responds to the artistic as well as economic importance of textiles in Flanders which goes back to the Middle-Ages and draws on local knowledge in the production of several new commissions. Contemporary and historical works from Belgium, Brazil, Germany, India, Mali, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States also demonstrate the international dimension of both the exhibition and the aesthetic and political questions associated with the textile medium.
WorksShow artists
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> Hélio Oiticica, P20 Parangolé Cape 12 Guevarcalia, 1968. Object, paint, cotton chite fabric, sequins, 88 x 95 x 1,0 cm .
> Jef Cornelis, James Lee Byars, Antwerpen 18 April - 7 Mei 1969, 1969. Video, single-channel video, b/w, sound, 00:32:30.
> Tapta , Formes pour un espace souple, 1974. Sculpture, wool, 300 x 300 x 300 cm.
> Ivan do Espírito Cardoso Filho , Hélio Oiticica, H O, 1979. Film, 00:13:00.
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> Hélio Oiticica, Parangolé Capa 21 ‘Xoxoba’ for Nininha of Mangueira, 1968 edition 20 copies ( Replica), 1991. Object, cotton cape , 90 x 100 cm.
> Alice Creischer, The Greatest Happiness Principle Party, 2001. Installation, 7 life-sized wooden silhouettes, 1 textile banner, 9 drawings, some textile - clothed in various costumes , 50 x 900 cm, 300 x 80 cm.
> Narcisse Tordoir, Bréhima Kone, L’Africeur de Bogolan, 2004. Installation, bogolan, silkscreen, acrylic, variable dimensions.
> Sheela Gowda, Down Under, 2009. Sculpture, textile, 184 x 125 x 8 cm.
> Enrico David, Untitled (Personified Plugging Gridlock with aggregates), 2009. Installation, tapestry, sisal, 200 x 3600 cm.
> Goshka Macuga, On the Nature of the Beast , 2009. Textile, jacquard, 290 x 560 cm.
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> Hélio Oiticica, P22 Parangole Cape 18 Nirvana . Object, cotton fabric, nylon mesh .
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> Hélio Oiticica, P25 Parangole Cape 21 Xoxoba. Object, cotton fabric. , 118 x 106 x 0,5 cm.
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> Hélio Oiticica, P08 Parangole Cape 5 Mangueira . Object, paint, fabrics (linen, rauon, silk, satin, canvas), tulle, 106 x 79,8 x 20 cm.
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> Hélio Oiticica, Parangolé Cape 12 Of Adversity we live. Object, paint, fabric (jute, cotton), plastic .
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> Hélio Oiticica, Seja Marginal, seja herói. Object, silkscreen on fabric.