Unravel: at the Barbican Art Gallery review - let the complex fabric of this textile show envelop you
London, UK. 2024. Artist Antonio Jose Guzman with his joint work (with Iva Jankovic) 'Messengers of the Sun', 2022, at a preview of ‘Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art’, a new exhibition at Barbican Art Gallery which explores the medium of textiles. Over 100 artworks by 50 international practitioners demonstrating stitching, weaving, braiding, beading and knotting are on show 13 February to 26 May 2024. Credit: Stephen Chung / Alamy Live News
NANCY DURRANT, CULTURE EDITOR @NANCYDURRANT
Review at a glance / Excerpt
And yet as an artform, textile has consistently been underestimated. Often, it’s dismissed as ‘craft’ or ‘women’s work’, its association with the domestic overriding its versatility, its resonances, and its complexity.
All of which makes it perfect as a form in which to get political. That’s the broad focus of this new exhibition at the Barbican, Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, which features more than 100 artworks, from small embroideries to vast installations, by 50 international artists including the likes of Yinka Shonibare, Cecilia Vicuña, Magdalena Abakanowicz (recently the subject of a large solo exhibition at Tate Modern), Nicholas Hlobo and more. Many are likely to be new discoveries for visitors.
‘Ancestral Threads’, which takes up most of the ground floor of the gallery and is home to some of the most monumental works, features artists who look back at textile histories. Some shed light on the effects of globalism and trade – Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic’s patchworks, dyed with valuable indigo, recall the exploitation of African enslaved people who brought with them expertise in its cultivation; at one point a length of indigo cloth equated in monetary value to one enslaved human.
As with most Barbican exhibitions, constrained in a sense by its enormous space, there is, conceivably, a bit too much to see. It definitely feels at first that there’s way too much text – but actually, bar just a few irritating lapses into fatuous artspeak, the explanations on the walls, for nearly all pieces, are both informative and genuinely interesting. Not every work will resonate, but it’s never less than fascinating. Give yourself time to let this show unspool.
Barbican Art Gallery, February 13 to May 26; barbican.org.uk