Ikon presents Thread the Loom, a group exhibition celebrating the art of weaving.

An AVL Studio Dobby loom, on loan from Birmingham City University (BCU), will be activated through a series of micro-residencies with five West Midlands weavers Chantelle Folarin, Mahawa Keita, Clare Langford, Andrée Walker and Theo Wright, and international artist Seulgi Lee. Textiles produced on the loom will be exhibited alongside work by contemporary artists Raisa Kabir, Alis Oldfield, Bharti Parmar, Dinah Prentice and Su Richardson.

Combining the tradition of hand weaving and computer-aided design, Thread the Loom invites the weavers and artists to exchange ideas, materials and structures that connect to the past in developing a sustainable future.

Ikon’s display of contemporary art with textiles, curated by Daphne Chu, positions the loom as a metaphor for community, storytelling and intergenerational knowledge. Curatorially anchored by Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction (1986), the motif of the bag threads through works by Alis Oldfield, Dinah Prentice and Su Richardson. In essence, both story and journey hold and carry. Raisa Kabir and Bharti Parmar explore how histories are held and carried in materials.

The micro-residencies champion a ‘learning by doing’ approach, whereby visitors can observe, engage with and participate in traditional and contemporary art and craft practices. Each resident weaver brings a wealth of professional experience, working in teaching, running social enterprises and designing for textile companies, demonstrating diverse economies and ecologies of practice. Seulgi Lee, whose solo exhibition at Ikon Gallery – her first in the UK – coincides with Thread the Loom, also undertakes a micro-residency on the Dobby loom. Read more.

This exhibition is supported by Jerwood Foundation, Cotton Textiles Research Trust, The Saintbury Trust and Freelands Foundation.