Taking a major textile artwork, The Knitting Map, as a central case study, this book interrogates the social, philosophical and critical issues surrounding contemporary textile art today. It explores gestures of community and controversy manifest in contemporary textile art practices, as both process and object.
Created by more than 2,000 knitters from 22 different countries, who were mostly working-class women, The Knitting Map became the subject of national controversy in Ireland. Exploring the creation of this multi-modal artwork as a key moment in Irish art history, Textiles, Community and Controversy locates the work within a context of feminist arts practice, including the work of Judy Chicago, Faith Ringold and the Guerilla Girls.
Bringing together leading art critics and textile scholars, including Lucy Lippard, Jessica Hemmings and Joanne Turney, the collection explores key issues in textile practice from gender, class and nation to technology and performance.
Introduction Nicola Moffat Chapter 1 - Navigation, nuance and half/angel's Knitting Map Jools Gilson Chapter 2 - The entangled map and Irish Art Fionna Barber Chapter 3 - The Knitting Map and the media Rachel Andrews Chapter 4 - Busywork: The real thing Lucy R. Lippard Chapter 5 - The edge of the Map Nicola Moffat Chapter 6 - Knitting after making: What we do with what we make Jessica Hemmings Chapter 7 - Textures of performance: Rethinking The Knitting Map Róisín O’Gorman Chapter 8 - Whereabouts uncertain: Reading subversion in half/angel's The Knitting Map in Cork, Ireland and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Deborah Barkun Chapter 9 - On seeing, still Bernadette Sweeney Chapter 10 - The voices of Cork: Cartography, landscape and memory in The Knitting Map Kieran McCarthy Chapter 11 - Puns and needles: Reactions to The Knitting Map in 2005 Sarah Foster Chapter 12 - Stitched up?: The Knitting Map in context Joanne Turney Chapter 13 - Alchemy for beginners: The Knitting Map and other primes Richard Povell Afterword Jools Gilson Endnotes References Index About the authors Contributors
Jools Gilson is Professor of Creative Practice at University College Cork, Ireland. She is a transdisciplinary artist and award-winning radio broadcaster. She directed the textile art project The Knitting Map from 2003-2005, and has written and presented on the work internationally. Nicola Moffat is an independent scholar, poet and artist who lives and practises in Cork, Ireland. She has published articles in several journals and edited collections, and her poetry has appeared in magazines and anthologies. She is a regular contributor to Ó Bheál, Cork's longest running open mic night and to events organised in support of Fired! Irish Women Poets.
Reviews for Textiles, Community and Controversy: The Knitting Map
This is a solid, convincing example of the theoretical possibilities generated by a collaborative, disputed, ambitious art project. * ARLIS/NA *
