Reading the Thread

Exploring cloth as a record of experience and its role in communicating our identities, this book presents cloth within its social, historical, psychological and cultural context.

Lesley Millar is Emerita Professor of Textile Culture at the University for the Creative Arts, UK. She has been responsible for many international touring textile exhibitions. She has contributed to many publications most recently editing, with Alice Kettle, The Erotic Cloth (Bloomsbury, 2018) and Spaces and Places (2021). In 2008 she received the Japan Society Award for significant contribution to Anglo-Japanese relationships and in 2011 was appointed MBE for her contribution to Higher Education. Alice Kettle is Professor of Textile Arts at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is co-author of Machine Stitch Perspectives with Jane McKeating (2010) Hand Stitch Perspectives (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Collaboration Through Craft (Bloomsbury, 2013) with Dr Amanda Ravetz and Helen Felcey. She has most recently edited, with Lesley Millar, The Erotic Cloth (Bloomsbury, 2018). She is a practising artist with work in international collections including the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, The Crafts Council of Great Britain, Museums in Riga, MAIO in Turin, and the Belger Collection Kansas City USA.

List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction Prof Lesley Millar (UCA Farnham, UK) and Prof Alice Kettle, (MSARC, Manchester School of Art Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) Part One: Reading the Record 1. Tenapi: Markers of Clan Identity of the Alurung, East Indonesia Linda S. McIntosh (Independent Curator and Research Associate, Tracing Patterns Foundation, and Yulianti Peni, Curator, Museum 1000 Moko, Alor Regency, Indonesia) 2. The Powerful Whispers project: A re-imagined story of Mills, Menders and Archived Family Memories Robert Burton (Associate Dean Academic, Teesside University, UK) 3. Drapery and napery: lace war memorials Dr Carol Quarini (Independent Artist Researcher UK) 4. Cloth, Nationalism and Cultural Identity: The Symbolism of Traditional Attire in Defining Nigeria's Diverse Ethnic Indigenism Dr Clement Emeka Akpang (Cross River University of Technology Nigeria) Artist Maria Nepomuceno in conversation with Alice Kettle, Part 1 Part Two: Following the Thread 5. Robe a la Grand-Mere: The Reuse of 18th century Silks in Romantic-era Fashion Ruby Hodgson (Victoria and Albert Museum, UK) 6. Layers of Comfort: Shetland taatit rugs Carol Christiansen (Curator and Community Museums Officer, Shetland Museum and Archives, Lerwick, Shetland) 7. Making of Kediyun: A Conscious Approach to Cloth Lokesh Ghai (Independent Artist/ Researcher India) 8. Transformations in the Making and Meaning of Barkcloth in Uganda Venny Mary Nakazibwe (Makerere University, Margaret Trowell School of Industrial & Fine Art, College of Engineering Design Art and Technology, Kampala, Uganda) Artist Maria Nepomuceno in conversation with Alice Kettle, Part 2 Part Three: Challenging the Reading 9. Small Acts of Refusal: Suffragette-embroidered Cloths worked in Holloway Prison Dr Denise Jones (Independent Artist Researcher UK) 10. Stitching Justice: Textiles as a Means for Contemporary Social Justice Alicia Decker (Iowa State University, Portland State University, Centralia College USA) and Susan T. Avila 11. Film as Fabric: Textile practice as Feminist Critique in Expanded Cinema Dr Mary Stark (Independent Artist/Researcher, UK) 12. Cuttings 1820 - 2020 Pippa Hetherington (Independent Artist/Researcher, South Africa) Artist Celia Pym in conversation with Lesley Millar, Part 1 Part Four: Drafting the Future 13. Portraying a Practice: Communication E-textiles Hannah Perner-Wilson (Guest Professor of the Spiel & Objekt Masters program at the University of Performing Arts Ernst Busch in Berlin Germany), Becca Rose Glowacki (doctoral student at Goldsmiths, University of London), Irene Posch (Professor of Design & Technology at the University of Art and Design Linz, Austria), Laura Devendorf (Assistant Professor of Information Science, ATLAS Institute Fellow, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA) 14. Cloth, Techné, and Traces in Digital Fashion Katharina Sand (Kunstuniversität Linz A/ Università della Svizzera italiana CH) 15. The Coded Lab Dr Sonja Andrew (University of Leeds, UK) 16. Piñatex®: A New Material for a New World Dr Carmen Hijosa (InnovationRCA and founder of Piñatex®) Artist Celia Pym in conversation with Lesley Millar, Part 2 Index