Teresa Margolles: Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art

Barbican, London

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, we showcased 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 offered narratives of violence, imperialism and exclusion alongside stories of resilience, love and hope.