10 Feb 2012

COTTON: Global Threads at Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

COTTON: Global Threads
Whitworth Art Gallery
To 13 May 2012

Although just about everyone on the planet wears an article of cotton each day, the story of cotton is far from every day. It spans centuries and continents, was the catalyst for some of the most important moments in modern history and exposes a multitude of ethical sins.

A new exhibition, COTTON: Global Threads will tell this story, giving a global history of the production, consumption and trade in cotton. New commissions by contemporary artists including Yinka Shonibare and Lubaina Himid will be shown alongside historic pieces from the late Middle Ages to the present day, exploring how cotton's history touches on economics, science and technology, slavery, fashion and popular culture.

Through a dramatic redisplay of Whitworth Art Gallery's textile displays, COTTON: Global Threads aims to set the production and consumption of cotton in a global framework, taking in Lancashire and South Asia, the Americas and Africa. Although cotton gave Lancashire its hour on the stage of world history, today China, the USA and India are the world's foremost producers of cotton textiles.

Themes tackled by the exhibition include 'Trade Goods', an examination of India's extensive global trade networks in the centuries before the centre of cotton production shifted to Western Europe; 'Technological Revolution', which looks at the impact of spinning and weaving technology on the development of the cotton industry in Lancashire; and 'Moral Fibre', a provocative look at cotton's dirty secrets and its human and environmental impact. The installations by contemporary artists Yinka Shonibare, Liz Rideal, Lubaina Himid, Anne Wilson, Abdoulaye Konaté, Aboubakar Fofana and Grace Ndiritu engage with these themes in different ways.

A rich programme of events, lectures, performances and film screenings will accompany the exhibition. Event highlights include:

Walking the Warp Manchester
Saturday 25 February, 1-5pm, Free, Drop-in
WTWM is a one-off durational movement performance performed over a 4-5 hour period by young dancers from the Centre for Advanced Training at the Lowry. Choreographed by Professor Anne Wilson, one of the artists exhibiting in COTTON: Global Threads, and local dance theatre artist Bridget Fiske. The work is based on the warping actions required to produce a woven cloth and is a comment on the absence of textile production in NW England today.

Talk: Grace Ndiritu
Thursday 22 March, 6-8pm, free, drop-in
Artist Grace Ndiritu in conversation with Dr Jennifer Harris, Curator of COTTON: Global Threads.

Talk: Anna Arabindan-Kesson
Thursday 26 April, 6-8pm, free, drop-in
Anna Arabindan-Kesson, a researcher at Yale University will discuss her work on the representation of cotton in art.