Unravel - The Power & Politics of Textile Art

Textiles cover and protect us, engage our senses, trigger our memories, represent our beliefs, hold our stories. We are wrapped in cloth when we’re born and enshrouded in it when we die. As an artistic medium, textiles can speak to the joys and pains of being human, as well as the larger structures and systems that shape our world.

In this major group exhibition, 50 international, intergenerational artists use textiles to communicate vital ideas about power, resistance and survival. From intimate hand-crafted pieces to monumental sculptural installations, these works offer narratives of violence, imperialism and exclusion alongside stories of resilience, love and hope.

There is also an opportunity to view a new artwork by Ibrahim Mahama which transforms het Lakeside Terrace, enveloping the building’s iconic concrete walls with approximately 2000 square metres of bespoke woven cloth.

Purple Hibiscus has been created in collaboration with hundreds of craftspeople from Tamale in Ghana where the colossal…