This winter sees the UK premiere of the exhibition ‘Cultex’ at the Hub: National Centre for Craft & Design, Lincolnshire. Developed through international collaborations between three Japanese artists and three Norwegian artists, the resulting exhibition is a new collection of sculptural textile installation that reflects both the artists’ individual and collaborative experiences.

In 2008, aided by curator Lesley Millar, three artists from Norway began working partnerships with three artists from Japan: Anniken Amundsen and Machiko Agano, Gabriella Göransson and Kiyonori Shimada, Eva Schølberg and Yuka Kawai. All three of the partnerships had very different starting points and developed their own identity from the very beginning, reflecting particular times, places and experiences. However they all shared a common thread – that the work is based in their knowledge of the techniques and materials associated with textile practice and an understanding of its history.

Using this shared textile ‘language’, each partnership set out to explore the possibilities of communicating and exchanging ideas about creativity and making, about connection and difference. Anniken Amundsen and Machiko Agano have built upon a previous working relationship, this time discovering new ways of working in response to the effects of environmental change. Gabriella Göransson and Kiyonori Shimada had never met until this project but recognised a mutual interest in primordial memory and archaic, organic forms. Eva Schølberg and Yuka Kawai had once met, many years ago, and determined to find a direction that was new to both, basing their outcomes on ideas of ‘gravity’ and ‘ground’. All the artists and the curator have contributed Journals to the website www.cultex.org in which they write about their experiences during the time of the project.

The outcomes from these three collaborative partnerships demonstrate the breadth and depth of contemporary textile practice, and its importance in cross-cultural and trans-national understanding.

“The works are interventionist in the broadest sense – intervening not only in physical space, but also within the cultural and creative space of people living in particular times and particular places.” Professor Lesley Millar, Curator ‘Cultex’

The exhibition will be complimented by a series of learning activities and a conference to be staged early February at the Hub, the content of which will discuss how cross cultural dialogues and shared practice contribute to the global story of textiles. A full press release, detailing speakers, dates and fee will be available from the Hub in November.

EXHIBITION INFORMATION
DATES:
Open to the public every day (but closed to the public on 1st or 2nd February for the Cultex conference – exact details TBC)
OPENING TIMES: 10.00 – 17.00 7 days per week
ADDRESS: Hub: Navigation Wharf, Carre Street, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, NG34 7TW
CONTACT DETAILS: hub@leisureconnection.co.uk 01529 308710