From Malin to Milan: Donegal tweed gets an international twist at Dublin show
Stories are embedded in what we wear; language and cloth are intricately connected. The words text and textile come from the Latin texere, to weave.
Fabric
and fabricate come from fabrica – something skillfully produced. The words lingerie, lining and linoleum all originate in linen. We talk of life 'hanging by a thread', being 'on tenterhooks' or 'spinning a yarn'.
The drive to establish textiles as a fine art movement began in the 1960s and has gathered momentum all around the world. A major new exhibition in
Dublin Castle
places international fibre artists from the
Milan
-based collective Fringe and their invited guests alongside Wild
Donegal
Tweed, a recent collaboration between five Irish tweed companies and the fashion and textile students of NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) in Rome.
The Fine Art of Textile exhibition is curated by Milan-based Irish artist Nuala Goodman. She points out that the last two Venice Biennales have sanctioned the shift of textiles from the marginal confines of 'low art', relegated to being a homely practice and mainly the prerogative of women, to a phenomenon that travels to the heart of the art system and market.
This was confirmed by the extraordinary work of Olga de Amaral at the Cartier Foundation in Paris recently. Such popularity has been attributed to the changing face of recent art history and the work of dedicated scholars, curators and critics.
READ MORE
In May, Art News reported that the New York art scene has been 'fibre bombed' with textile exhibitions not only in institutions such as MOMA but also in blue chip commercial galleries. Dealers are responding to the work of international curators so that weaving, embroideries and other textiles formerly classified as craft or denigrated as women's work are now being reassessed.
The French modernist Sonia Delaunay once said, 'For me there is no gap between my painting and my so-called 'decorative' work', illustrating how artists across the past century have bridged the gap between painting and textile art.
Stitched Book by Maria Lai
Colomba Leddi, Panel in blue, digital print on cotton
Life is Short by Lisa Farmer
Wild Tapestry 21, 2021, by Nuala Goodman
Goodman, who had the idea for the exhibition on her mind for years, believes the creative disciplines of painting, sculpture, textile, design and architecture have always been of equal value. 'I see no hierarchy. Many of the international artists in the exhibition are incorporating one or more of these media into their works,' she says.
The Wild Donegal Tweed project, by the students of NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) in Rome
The Wild Donegal Tweed project, by the students of NABA
The Wild Donegal Tweed project, by the students of NABA
The Wild Donegal Tweed project, by the students of NABA
'There is a special place in my heart for textile, for there is something free and intuitive about it. It is wonderful also to show the contemporary twists on traditional Donegal tweed in the work of young international design and fashion students in Rome.'
[
Dream weavers: Donegal tweed inspires younger talent to make new 'music' in cloth
Opens in new window
]
The Fine Art of Textile opens at the Coach House Gallery in Dublin Castle next Friday, June 6th and runs until August 24th. There will be an embroidery talk and workshop on Saturday, June 7th. See See
@fineartoftextile
on Instagram or
dublincastle.ie
for details.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
7 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘I think the build up is so much worse': Leaving Cert students relieved after first exam completed
Emotions were high this morning in Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School (ETSS) in north Dublin , where the school's first cohort of sixth year students began their Leaving Certificate exams with English Paper 1. For Zuzanna Zoltowska (18), anticipating the exams has been nerve-racking. 'It's honestly just a stressful experience ... Going into that exam I was like 'Oh my God, I'm going to die.'' Zoltowska wants to study physics in Dublin City University (DCU), a subject that she is feeling more confident about tackling. READ MORE 'I think I have one of those more technical minds. English isn't my strongest subject, I'll say that.' [ Carl O'Brien: 'Day one done' - Leaving Cert tips for students and their supporters Opens in new window ] Her six years at Belmayne ETSS, which was established in 2019, have 'gone by really fast'. 'Until the last second you're like, it's not going to happen, and then suddenly you're in the room and you're doing your Leaving Cert.' Zuzanna Zoltowska. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill The 'mixture of anxiety and tiredness' school principal Aisling Dunlevey saw among Zoltowska and her classmates before they turned over their first exam papers on Wednesday morning had been replaced by relief and animated reflection by 11.50am. Students gathered around their English teacher, Sinéad McGowan, to dissect the paper. Ms McGowan said students in her class had the chance to show off their creative flair with the opportunity to write a short story about their family pet, a task several gravitated towards. 'I have a lot of lads that are really funny so I think they really leaned into that and their sense of humour will shine out, hopefully.' The theme of the underdog resonated with students who took the Higher Level English paper this morning. 'This year we feel like the underdogs,' said Ms McGowan, 'I think they connected emotionally with that one because they do feel hard done by in that the inflated grades ended just in time for them.' A 'postmarking adjustment' applied to students' grades this year will reduce from 7 per cent to 5.5 per cent, meaning students' grades will be lower, on aggregate, compared with the bumper grades achieved over recent years. English is Sarah Osbourne's (18) favourite subject, and one she wants to continue in college. She has Arts in Maynooth and a creative writing course in Blackrock College on her Central Applications Office (CAO) form. There was a period where I wanted to drop out,' said Osbourne, who is now glad she decided to complete her Leaving Certificate. 'Those last two years make or break you. They push you and then once you're finished it's just such a relief. I think that the build up is so much worse.' Sarah Osbourne and Páidí Malone. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Páidí Malone (19) is hoping to study politics and history in DCU while Arron Kavanagh (18) plans 'to start working and save up a bit of money, probably go travelling'. Cormac Taaffe, Aron Kavanagh and Ilyas Ugurlu. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Cormac Taaffe (18) has 'an electrician apprenticeship lined up' for next year, while Ilyas Ugurlu (18) is looking forward to studying engineering technology.
Irish Times
7 hours ago
- Irish Times
Rosie O'Donnell's first stand up show in over a decade in Dublin
Comedian and actor Rosie O'Donnell has announced her first stand up show in almost a decade in Dublin next month. The Emmy Award winning talkshow host will perform at the 3Olympia Theatre on Sunday, July 27th. Her new show, Common Ground, is described as: 'Now living in her newly adopted hometown of Dublin, Rosie reflects on the move, the culture shift, family life, and the humbling and hilarious realisation that maybe you don't have it all figured out.' O'Donnell appeared on The Late Late Show in March where she told host Patrick Kielty that she moved from the US to Ireland in January as a way to 'escape' US president Donald Trump who 'has it out' for her. O'Donnell has had a number of roles in films including A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle. She is currently appearing in Sex and the City spin-off And Just Like That, where she plays a virgin nun named Mary and possible love interest to Miranda. READ MORE Tickets for the show from €36.40 to €47.60, which includes a booking fee and venue restoration levy. Tickets go on sale on Friday, June 6th at 10am on Ticketmaster .
Irish Times
9 hours ago
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert home economics: ‘Practical, topical, no curveballs'
The Leaving Cert higher level home economics paper received a thumbs-up from teachers who sad students will be relieved with an exam which featured plenty of 'nice' questions. Megan Friel, Home Economics teacher at Mercy College, Sligo and Studyclix subject expert, said the paper was 'very practical, topical, student-friendly and contained no curve balls'. Alice Quinn, home economics teacher at The Institute of Education, also said that clear nature of the questions allowed students with a solid grasp of material to get straight to the point. 'The appearance of predicted materials will help offset some of the more niche questions,' she said. READ MORE Ms Friel said section B Q1 – which is compulsory – focused on the impact of food choices and eating habits of adults in Ireland. 'This was very relevant to students and gave them the opportunity to display their in-depth knowledge of the course,' she said. 'The properties didn't appear in Section A which is unusual, but students will be delighted, and the main nutrient on Section B Q1 was lipids. This hasn't been asked since 2018. The core question was also straightforward. Students are very comfortable answering questions about food commodities.' Ms Quinn said students will have been cheered by the 'array of nice, clear short questions to start the paper'. 'There was no ambiguity in what was being asked, more so than previous years, and so students could launch straight into answering,' she said. 'The first question was a nice recall of nutrients: functions of carbohydrates, deficiency diseases – the real fundamentals of the subject,' she said. 'The fish question may have thrown some as many could have overlooked the differences in cold vs hot smoking in their revision, but with other options available they won't have lost momentum.' Students will also have been pleased to see Family Resource Management as the question setter kept with recent trends in papers. 'Even though the questions were comparatively niche, this will have suited most students as the precision of the questions let those with a solid grasp get straight to the point and earn marks,' she said. Over on Section B, she said students were again greeted with a 'nice entry point'. 'The pie chart was a nice way to access the data and the questions offered lots of scope. Students did need to read the question carefully to fully grasp it, but at the core was the baseline elements of that they should be familiar with,' Ms Quinn said. 'Many will be thrilled to see the predicted appearance of lipids and the sometimes tricky question (e) replaced with a familiar take on factors of choice and eating habits of adult.' Question 2 was quite broad and spanned chapter lines but would have made a lot of sense to those who reflected on the interconnected ideas and key words of the syllabus, Ms Quinn said. 'In particular, those who anticipated the return of cheese (not seen since 2017) will be pleased,' she said. She said Q3 was an unexpected aspect of an expected topic – food hygiene – so those who really covered the topic in detail would have been best suited to tackle it. Overall, students familiar with the past papers and the fundamentals of the subject will have been able accrue marks effectively and efficiently. The occasional question on more niche aspects of the course will have surprised some but given others the chance to distinguish themselves. Ms Friel, meanwhile, sad the ordinary level paper included questions that were 'very student-friendly and accessible.' Section B Q1 featured a very user-friendly chart on soup, while students will be relieved that Section B Q2 followed the same format as previous years. 'Overall this was a very fair paper which will likely have brought a smile to the faces of students and teachers alike,' she said.
