A Darker Thread

Wales has a much celebrated tradition of creating both utilitarian and decorative textiles of distinctive design.  From power-loomed blankets to hand-stitched quilts, textiles are a key part of Welsh visual culture and history.

Whilst ‘A Darker Thread’ takes this heritage as its starting point, twelve contemporary artists, designers and makers have been invited to exhibit work which subverts these expectations.

Exhibitors have been selected for their challenging, confrontational or unpredictable approach to making thoroughly contemporary work which confidently cross boundaries of art, design and craft.  A variety of making processes are exemplified, but all make use of thread in some form.

The curious, provocative, intense, fragile works explore broad-ranging themes of empowerment, loss, language, internal landscapes, memory and gender to name but a few.  Some work might still feel comfortably familiar through its materiality or typically ‘Welsh’ colour palette of black, ecru and red; much hopefully, does not.