Knitted, Knotted, Spun: The Textuality of Textiles 

What if we thought of textiles as texts? What if we gave them the same authority and legitimacy we have afforded words and documents? When we focus on the roles and work of women to understand our families and neighbors we need a different way of “reading.” How can we discern how we share histories, transmit cultural knowledge, build relationships, convey our love of family and community, and express political opinions?  

Textiles, as much as words – and often together with words - are witnesses to history. From them we learn how the unrelenting and predominantly female labors of raising livestock and crops, picking, shearing, carding, spinning, weaving, sewing, darning, and knitting are not simply technologies of survival. They produce wrought and embodied expressions of meaning. We create – and we must read – these textile “texts” not just with our eyes, but with our hands and our hearts.  

This exhibition is in honor of the Text & Textuality: A Symposium on March 20-21. Learn more about that symposium. 

Image credit: Dreaming It Forward. 5 Year Plan. 2024.  

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