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Fiber Visions: The First Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art

<29> Jefferies was invited by the China National Academy of Art to be the international, western curator for the 1st Triennial of Fiber Art. Alongside 3 Chinese curators, she was specifically tasked to research work from Western Europe, Canada and USA. In doing, the curation was the channel through which research on craft, skill, innovation, and industry took place. The juxtaposition of Western European works with Chinese fibre artworks exposed differences of Cartesian logic in occidental culture and Buddhist derived logic in Asian culture and the impact of this in approaches to textile development and technique. The historical method was comprised of history of science, history of society and industry perspectives, and art historical approaches. The art historical approach used seminal 20th century art, monumental textile wrapped cultural sites by Christo, the dadaist wrapped sewing machine of Man Ray, or “combined” collages of Rauschenberg as a lens to develop theories of material culture. The additive and subtractive techniques exposed by this analysis are highly relevant in contemporary development of conductive thread and smart fabrics technologies.

This contextualises the transposition of the locus of action over time of textile work from domestic sites to public space to digital media. Jefferies’ research, and the resulting major exhibition in a city associated with the history of the textile industries, brings an industrial significance. The weaving methods exhibited give insight to modern manufacturing process and computer modeling of weaving patterns. The digital economy dimension highlights the possibility of local sensitivity and micro-fabrication alongside global reach and the transmission skill, technique, and culture.

Finally Jefferies investigated the potential of textile handiwork in health/well being contexts, and programmed for the triennial symposium leading work by McGuinness’s Lived Lives project reporting on psychiatric benefit of cloth as material reported by the St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin.