Threads – Breathing Stories Into Materials: GROUP EXHIBITION CO-CURATED BY ALICE KETTLE
ARNOLFINI

Threads was a major exhibition at Arnolfini, co-curated by Alice Kettle, featuring 21 contemporary international artists and makers who use textiles as their chosen medium.

Celebrating material and making, the exhibition explored the storytelling power of textiles to connect with past traditions, find commonalities between cultures, time, and place, and to ‘breathe stories into materials’.*

Threads encompassed processes including weaving and spinning, rug-making, stitching and embroidery, print, knit, threading, mending, and the use of found materials. Materials and techniques were handed down, reused, and continually reinvented.

Reflecting a wide range of experiences, materials, processes, and artistic impulses, the exhibiting artists were: Caroline Achaintre, Mounira Al Solh, Ifeoma U. Anyaeji, Olga de Amaral, Will Cruickshank, Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė, Lubaina Himid, Young In Hong, Raisa Kabir, Alice Kettle, Anya Paintsil, Anousha Payne, David Penny, Anna Perach, Celia Pym, Richard McVetis, Ibrahim Mahama, Farwa Moledina, Lucy Orta, Yinka Shonibare, and Esna Su.

The artists explored narratives of movement and exchange, environmental concerns, sustainability, labour, trade, migration, post-colonial histories, identity, gender, politics, community building, and placemaking, reflecting our shared histories in a contemporary context. Through acts of making, each artist engaged with questions of memory, asking where, how, and with what materials the work has been created. As threads unravelled and new stories became intertwined, audiences were invited to connect their own memories through material and making.

Threads also included:

• New artist commissions by Birmingham-based Farwa Moledina and Bristol-based South Korean artist Young In Hong.

• A reimagining of Ezuhu ezu by Nigerian artist Ifeoma U. Anyaeji, developed during her residency in Bristol as the first recipient of the Arnolfini ACBMT International Artist Residency Award.

• A digital memory map and audio stories exploring Bristol’s complex textile history, focusing on the sites of the Great Western Cotton Factory and Bristol’s emerging ‘textile quarter’ — home to Bristol Weaving Mill, a collaborative partner in Threads and pioneers of a thriving new textile industry in the city.

• An accompanying exhibition showcasing work by refugee women who attend Arnolfini’s Women’s Craft Club, alongside members of Bristol-based charity Bridges for Communities’ Stitching Together refugee sewing group.

• A supporting programme of engagement activities, including family workshops by Let’s Make Art, participatory artworks, Celia Pym’s Mending Project, interactive activities from Bristol Weaving Mill, and a programme of talks, music, dance, and film. Together, these elements brought the building to life, creating opportunities to ‘make, unmake, and remake connections’ and fostering a new community of makers and memories.