The Versatility of Contemporary Textile Art
For thousands of years, people have been practicing the craft of designing or creating textiles. First emerging from a necessity to fill basic needs, different cultures around the world took it to another level by developing methods of making artistic, creative and beautiful cloth that laid the basis for what we call textile art. The practice that involves weaving, knitting, pressing or knotting together individual pieces of natural or artificial fibers, textile making tradition spans global cultures as one of the earliest human technologies.
Apart from providing shelter and warmth or holding goods, textiles also served decorative purposes and held an important place in arts and crafts of various cultures around the world.
Ever since the 1980s, textile arts have been developing new forms and language involving many creatives along the way. Influenced by postmodernist ideas, textile and fiber work has become more and more conceptual. Various creatives are now experimenting with techniques, materials and concepts, completely pushing the limits of the medium. These re-born practices such as embroidery art, weaving, quilting, crochet and many others, have placed a new focus on the work that confronted social and political issues such as gender feminism, domesticity, women’s work, and identity politics. Yet, not all fiber artists are feminists or even concerned with the political and social connotations of fabric arts. They simply employ textiles and threads as a painting and sculpting material.
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The Versatility of Contemporary Textile Art - A Widewalls article