Threads: Contemporary Art & Textiles Symposium
Event Information
About this event
Due to the impact of COVID on our team and the many talented speakers in our programme, we have decided to postpone the Threads: Contemporary Art & Textiles Symposium. We have no intention of cancelling this event and will be back with a new date soon.
Hosted by The Dowse Art Museum, this online symposium will unravel the seam between textiles and contemporary art. Offering curated presentations from a range of influential local and international textiles figures, including iconic fashion designer Kate Sylvester, glittering New Zealand artist Reuben Paterson and Azerbaijani internationally-recognised contemporary visual artist, Faig Ahmed.
This event is part of Threads Textile Festival, which is part of Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts.
PROGRAMME | Threads: Contemporary Art & Textiles Symposium
9.45am – 10am | WELCOME
Karl Chitham (Ngā Puhi, Te Uriroroi), Director, The Dowse Art Museum
10am – 11am | KEYNOTE LECTURE
Reuben Paterson chats with Karl Chitham about the use of kōwhaiwhai in his collaboration with Dilana Rugs and many other textile moments from his practice and career.
Reuben Paterson (Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi), Artist
Karl Chitham (Ngā Puhi, Te Uriroroi), Director, The Dowse Art Museum
11am – 12pm | ART HISTORY FOCUS SESSION
Henderson and Fomison: the conscious use of material versus use, dictated by need
Linda Waters, Conservator Paintings, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Fiji Girmit (the indentured labour system) and Indo-Fijian craft practices
Quishile Charan, 2022 Te Whare Hēra International Artist in Residence
Exploration of social histories through textile art
Dr. Bronwyn Lloyd, 2021 Bumhardt Curator
Kohna Zari Ko – online mending initiative
Zoe Black (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Hine, Pākehā), Deputy Director, Objectspace
12pm – 12.30pm | INDUSTRY LECTURE
Woolchemy: Transforming an underutilized New Zealand fibre
Derelee Potroz-Smith, CEO & Co-Founder, Woolchemy
12.30pm – 1PM | BREAK
1pm – 2pm | ARTIST IN FOCUS SESSION
Looking to the materials in the local landscape as a way to understand place
Daegan Wells, Artist, Southland
The art of keeping it light: using humour and whakapapa to bring mauri to my quilts
Ron Te Kawa (Ngāti Porou), Artist, Woodville
How I use fabric to articulate my experience of living between Korea and New Zealand and the intangible experience of living with a language barrier
Emerita Baik, Artist, Wellington
2pm – 3pm | ART & FASHION
Kate Sylvester speaks with Chelsea Nichols about her collaborations with Michael Parekōwhai, Marcel Duchamp and Frances Hodgkins
Kate Sylvester, Designer & Director, Kate Sylvester
Dr. Chelsea Nichols, Senior Curator, The Dowse Art Museum
3pm – 4pm | KEYNOTE LECTURE
Faig Ahmed, internationally-recognised artist from Baku, Azerbaijan talks to curator Leslee Michelsen about reimagining ancient carpet crafts into contemporary sculptural works of art
Faig Ahmed, Artist, Azerbaijan
Dr. Leslee Michelsen, Curator of Collections & Exhibitions, Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design, Honolulu