Freddie Robins, Lucy Day and Eliza Gluckman
Published in Textile: Journal of Cloth & Culture, 2018, Volume 16 Issue 3
Taylor & Francis
Freddie Robins discusses her practice with curators Day+Gluckman in the context of textiles, feminism, heritage, and art practice. Using examples of her work and exhibition profile, they will consider how her career and practice has developed as an artist working with textiles and whether she consciously considers it to have a feminist voice; whether gender still has a pivotal role in how textiles are read and how Freddie’s work continues to contribute to that debate. Linking to recent Day+Gluckman exhibitions that have included Freddie— Concerning Matter in 2009, Fifties, Fashion and Emerging Feminism in 2011, and more recently, Liberties: Reflecting on 40 Years Since the Sex Discrimination Act—the conversation will look at how textiles have been curated into exhibitions, for example, FABRIC (2014) and Entangled (2017), examining curatorial hierarchies and whether there is a perceived or actual fear in displaying objects that do not hold their shape. They will also discuss the propensity of echo chambers in the art world? and beyond—are we only talking to each other?! How do artists and curators identify their audiences and is there a gendered snobbery about the “right type” of audience?
Keywords: textiles, art, knitting, gender, feminism, hierarchy, value, tribes