TRANSITION AND INFLUENCE:
the interface between cloth and culture

'Cloth is the universal free element. It doesn't have to explain itself. It performs.'*

The emergence of what could be considered 'global' artistic practice has not automatically created cross-cultural understanding. However, it seems that cloth provides a continuous undercurrent between cultures; it is both common to all cultures and culture-specific. Textile has a social, political and utilitarian history, moving across and between continents and peoples. It is a shared activity that stirs both conscious and unconscious memory. It is a language connecting practitioners in different cultures, as evidenced in their approaches and practice.

The Transition and Influence website sets out to disseminate projects highlighting the best and most exciting contemporary textile practice particularly from the UK, Japan, but also including other countries where contemporary textiles play an important role in the artistic and cultural discourse. The focus of the work featured in the various projects are:

• Contemporary textiles as intervention in the built environment
• Contemporary textiles that have emerged from a strong traditional practice
• Contemporary textiles that reflect a particular culture

These projects have been initiated by Lesley Millar through the University for the Creative Arts, the most recent being Cloth and Memory, an exhibition held at Salts Mill, Saltaire, Yorkshire – a UNESCO World Heritage site. Prior to this was Lost in Lace, a major publication and international exhibition held at the Gas Hall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery from October 29th 2011 - February 19th 2012. Please see below in the News Section for more details.

For more information about Transition and Influence projects and associated publications, click on the tool bar above.

*Tom Lubbock 'The secret life of cloth' The Independent 18/6/02

NEWS

CLOTH & MEMORY 2

Salts Mill, Saltaire, Yorkshire

Building upon the first 'Cloth and Memory' exhibition at the wonderful Salts Mill, Saltaire, Yorkshire in 2012 (see image above), we have applied for funding for 'Cloth and Memory 2', to be which be installed in the roof space of Salts Mill, which was the original spinning room and thought to be the largest room in the world when the mill was first opened. A number of artists were invited to visit Salts Mill and then submit proposals for site sensitive work. 22 artists have now been selected - group that includes emerging, early career and established artists from the UK, Germany, Japan and Norway. For further details visit www.clothandmemory.com

TRANSPARENT BOUNDARIES

The two year project 'Transparent Boundaries', launched in June 2012, is an EU funded project with partners Aalborg University, Denmark, the Hellenic Regional Development Center, Greece and AMAT, Italy.

The project seeks to investigate ways in which the inherent structure of lace net-works may be used as both a metaphorical and actual means of questioning and exploring the boundaries between the older generation, the society and cultural setting in which they live through workshops, performances and exhibitions. The first of these outcomes, the UK project was show at UCA Farnham with an accompanying conference on Friday October 26th 2012. In January 2013 all partners met in Athens, Greece to see the HRDC project outcome and attend the Greek conference. For more information Click Here

LOST IN LACE BREAKS THE RECORDS

The exhibition Lost in Lace closed on February 19th with a record breaking 40,046 visitors! The catalogue has proved immensely popular and if you were unable to visit the exhibition, order the catalogue now while stocks last.

ORDER YOUR COPY OF LOST IN LACE CATALOGUE HERE »

A major international exhibition, 'LOST IN LACE' opened in The Gas Hall at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on October 29th 2011 and ran until February 19th 2012. To know more about this project and the exciting catalogue click here

To fill in the Visitor Questionnaire click here

BITE-SIZE IN JAPAN

'BITE-SIZE' - an exhibition of miniature textiles celebrating 15 years of collaboration between textile artists in the UK and Japan opened at The Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation in London between October 31st - December 14th 2011. It was then shown at Gallery Gallery Kyoto Japan between February 25th – 10th March 2012., and from May 12th – 26th at Nagoya University of the Arts. To know more about this exhibition and its accompanying catalogueclick here

To fill in the Visitor Questionnaire click here

WEB GALLERY

Visit the new Transition and Influence Web Gallery of Contemporary Textile Artists.

Whether you are a collector, a museum or gallery curator, a journalist or a student, this unique resource has been created to profile contemporary textile artists from the UK and around the world who have worked on Transition and Influence projects.

The Web Gallery is not static, the images for those included will be updated, new artists will be added from new projects and in the future I will invite applications for selection from those whose work fits the categories of the Gallery.

Simply click here or go to the Web Gallery link at the top of this page, and enjoy the wonderful work.

NEWS ARCHIVE

For information about other projects visit the news archive page or click on a named project on the tool bar at the top of this page.