joseph scissorhands: Threadbare: Jonathan Baldock Huguette Caland Jeffrey Gibson Tau Lewis

Jonathan Baldock - Eating Feelings (a conversation), 2020 (detail)

Another strong exhibition at Stephen Friedman in which textiles and processes traditionally considered craft are elevated to the status of art. The four artists in Threadbare explore issues such as gender, identity, race and sexuality through a range of textile techniques in their own particular styles. Elements of the artwork displayed recalled that of Frances Upritchard's Wetwang Slack seen at the Barbican in 2019 (here).

Huguette Caland - Inaash, (dress #7) c. 1970

Huguette Caland's kaftans made in the 1970s directly challenge taboos associated with the representation of female sexuality. While living in Beirut in the 1960s, Caland rejected the western-influenced fashions worn by her peers in favour of loose-fitting kaftans inspired by the abaya, a form of traditional Arabic dress. At a time when the emphasis was on being tall and thin, Caland offered a liberating embrace of the female physique for women who did not conform to these societal pressures. In this vein, the dresses on view in ‘Threadbare’ conceal the body, instead drawing attention to abstract embroidery and detailed crochet patterns animated by the wearer’s movement.

The Last (dress #6), 1975

Rossinante, 2005-2011

Rossinante Under Cover X (Red, Orange, Black), 2011

Jonathan Baldock - Eating feelings (a conversation), 2020

Jonathan Baldock’s recent work uses puppetry, quilt-making and embroidery to reveal the malleable quality of the human body and its connection with the inner psyche. Baldock believes “in the power of making things through the bringing together of head and hand,” contesting the sentimentality associated with craft and the hand-made. ‘Eating feelings (a conversation)’ captures a pair of life-sized marionettes engaged in animated dialogue. Assuming the role of puppet master, Baldock breathes life into inanimate forms by using casts of his own body and arduous physical processes such as hand-embroidery.

All bodies are good bodies, 2021

I'm often silent when I'm screaming inside, 2019

Jeffrey Gibson - 'Hushi', 2021

Drawing on his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage, JeffreyGibson’s work engages Native American materials and process in relation to popular culture.His work in ‘Threadbare’ combines intricate indigenous artisanal handcraft–applied in wearable garments, beadwork and patterned quilts–with narratives of contemporary resistance in protest slogans and song lyrics in a “blend of confrontation and pageantry”. Gibson harnesses the power of such materials and techniques to activate overlooked histories, while also embracing the presence of marginalised identities in today's society.

POWER!, 2018

Speak To Me So That I Can Understand, 2018

MY HEART BEATS FOR THE ONE I LOVE, 2021

Tau Lewis - Harmony, 2021

Tau Lewis sews and builds complex sculptures and quilts that engage with personal trauma. Found materials such as leather are used to respond to the legacy of the Black diaspora. Lewis's recent textile works - described by the artist as "celestial bodies" - act as spiritual conduits between the past, present and future. The transformative quality of Lewis' work speaks to her interest in outsider artist from the Black South. She explains that "objects (which) come from the post-slavery era are made largely out debris, refuge and garbage. I consider them fossils containing the emotional generational DNA of the entire community. I believe that by studying certain art objects and tendencies toward new thinking in the black community, you can learn a lot about mobility, pictorial memory, trauma, and how to recover."