Inspiration
Humanity’s Art
You know the Flintstone’s cartoons or the 1970s B-movie concepts of early cave people life? Fire and the wheel are always the big deals. But at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, The Guardian‘s Nell Frizzel says that the “invention that changed history wasn’t the wheel, but the needle.”
From a Tuvaluan dancing skirt to binary systems, the curators of “Textiles: The Art of Mankind” whisk us through a whirlwind tour of how we’ve used textiles and textile tools to invent ourselves and interpret our world.
Liz Claiborne Inc, Sweater, warp-knitted on hand-operated machine, c.1980. School of Textiles.
After visiting the Fashion and Textile Museum for eight years, I can say that this is the best exhibition I’ve seen there and that’s with stiff competition from at least a dozen other excellent shows.
Patricia Roberts, ‘Ovaltinie’ hand-knitted sleeveless pullover, 1981. 100% silk. On loan from Diane Mackay.
Where else are you going to see a cotton boll from the San Joaquin Valley of California, an earth pigment cloth from the Senufo people of Ivory Coast, a patchwork jacket from Afghanistan, and a Fair Isle pullover from a Patricia Roberts pattern all in the same exhibit? I can be a bit hyperbolic, but I can truly say this was “breathtaking.”
The curators literally weave the textiles of disparate cultures and makers together over time and place to make the point that textiles and textile tools are not just the domain of crafters and attendees of wool or stitch festivals.
As they write, “Without textiles, we would not have material or quantitative knowledge, or these and much more: hafting, hunting, herding, reining, sledding, ploughing, fishing, boating, rigging, hoisting, climbing, gathering…yurts, tents, tepees, suturing, stents, grafts, bandaging, spacesuits.”
Senufo People, Korhogo cloth, 1970-2000. University of California, Davis.
I was particularly excited to learn that the “oldest needle is about 70,000 years old: a human-worked animal-bone needle (probably bird) found in South Africa.” And that “all thread-carrying devices descend from the needle.” So this means bobbins, knitting needles (the needles without eyes), the crochet hook, and shuttles are all “needles.”
Needles help us to mend our clothes and sew new ones, to knit sweaters and little cats in boxes, but they also play records on your turntable and are the critical measuring devices inside clocks and speedometers.
All you have to do is take a look at the cards from a Jacquard loom next to computer punch cards to see how that gorgeous shawl from the 1700s became that gorgeous animated film about mending, which Kay wrote about here on MDK. The yes/no binary system popularized by Jacquard became the foundation for computing.
That is the brilliance of this exhibition. There are so many textile worlds to explore: materials from bark to wool, dyes both natural and chemical, needles with and without eyes, fractal and binary patterns, symbolic and spiritual messages, making the new and mending the old, and what to do with all of the stuff that we are creating.
American Family, Recycled Doll, c.1900. University of California, Davis. Called ‘Jenny” this doll was re-dressed in old family clothing including a fake fur coat is made of a silk and wool textile called astrakhan.
Though the exhibition is broad and takes in tens of thousands of years of objects, it doesn’t overwhelm because you always do come back to that china doll wearing a cut-down child’s coat, a Thai singing shawl embellished with beetle’s wings, or that quaint English village scene knitted in mohair. The grand message of the exhibition still resides in individual objects, from the exquisitely rare to the utilitarian.
Cotton shawl worn by young Karen girls at funeral ceremonies decorated with hard wings of Sternocera aequisignata.
The curators round out the main exhibition with a special room called “Connecting Threads,” which showcases the work of Lynn Setterington who has made collaborating with community groups around the world her life’s work for fifty years.
Lynn Setterington, House, debris netting, 2024. Collection of the artist.
She presents yoyo quilts made of discarded netting and plastic shopping bags and hand-quilted studies of domestic objects like cheese-graters and rubber gloves. She reminds us that even the humblest of materials and subjects can form a fascinating textile which takes us right back to the simple cotton bolls and flax seeds which start the exhibition.
As we sit with a project in our favorite chair or gather at our local yarn shop and we hold yarn, thread, needles, or beetle wings in our hands, we are participating in something that might appear to others as humble, niche, or folksy. But we know we are spinning round ourselves the cocoon of history, the ancestral movements of billions of hands, and the collective rhythm of practice and persistence.
Afghani artisans, Patchwork jacket. 1980s. University of California, Davis.
Who knows what wonders and inventions we makers may summon next as we reach for our needles? I am grateful to be part of it all with you.
Photo in header: Charlotte Harding, ‘Jigsaw’ knitted sample of a 1978 pattern by Patricia Roberts, acrylic and alpaca, 2024. On loan from Charlotte Harding.
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I’ve been following exhibits for this museum through its newsletter. It is already on my list to visit in October. ..hopefully there will be a workshop I can attend as well.
Linda, please check the dates – it looks like this exhibit closes in September…
Fascinating article!! Wish the exhibit travelled to NY!
Fascinating, Jeni! Thank you for rearranging my thinking about our beginnings!
So glad we have you there in London to bring these amazing exhibitions to our awareness.
Thank you! I loved reading this.
Thank you so much! I hope that there is a catalogue! So fascinating and right up my current teaching alley!!
The invention that had the most impact – in every sense – on women: the washing machine.
Wow! I’ve seen headlines about this exhibit but really appreciate your review and photos. Looks like one of those monumental exhibits that has the possibility of changing lots of minds about “simple” every day objects and the “ordinary” humans who make them. I never thought of the needle as being more important than fire & the wheel – good point! And that’s long before weaving started too. I’m honored to be one of these humans making useful and beautiful things when I knit.
These pieces of history really are breathtaking. I loved this article. It is a keeper to read again. The next time I sit down to knit or sew, I will remember that I am in a long line of people who have contributed to civilization.
Last year I read a fascinating book from 1994, ‘Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years,’ by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. Her theory is that civilization really began when women learned to strip fibers from plants and twist them together. It’s a fascinating and mind expanding look at the importance of fiber work and women’s roles in ancient civilizations. I highly recommend it.
This was such a joy to read – thanks for sharing 🙂
Have you had the joy of seeing a modern display of needle crafts via THE RED DRESS ?
If not and or if you’ve never heard of it, go to Google.
It’s tge most amazing and beautiful culmination of cultures, needlework, and creativity!
Thank you for sharing your experience with this exhibit…I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post!
WOW! This is great. Thanks very much for sharing.
Fascinating article! Thank you for sharing so many details.
Those “computer punch cards” were technically called 5081’s. Selling those was my first-ever sales job, driving around the San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley in my little red VW Bug. A tough job, pretty much begging the computer room managers to accept a box of my samples and try them, to place an order. They walked around with some in a rubber band in their pocket, replacing the pocket protector of yore. 5081s were not a reliable way to store date– they were just made from heavy weight paper stock, and that warps in any humidity, making them unusable by the fussy card readers that were connected to the room-size computers. What the exhibit tag calls “magnetic storage” were the first hard drives– and those were developed by the two guys who later founded Systems Industries, using pizza pans (literally) to create prototypes. I advanced from selling the 5081’s to selling hard drives (a much better commission and more reliable product), then later had my own design firm in SF called The Ideas Group specializing in B2B advertising and sales materials, and one of our main clients turned out to be System Industries. And now here I am, not working for clients but doing my own knitting and weaving and spinning. I love the connection of it all.
Wish I could see this exhibit in person. Thanks for sharing it with us!
I love stuff like this, but certainly won’t be making it to the exhibit. Is it available online?
This article reminds me of a video by Engineering Knits, that computers wouldn’t exist without fabric. https://youtu.be/t-Bb0Lf3sCs?si=F8QuZJehly6hL34i
Ooh. I think I need to pop over and see this one.
Lovely! Is there a pattern for the knitted village at the top?