Goldsmiths - University of London

Pennina Barnett

I write about contemporary visual and material culture. My research focuses on cloth and metaphor; cultural identity and difference; and art and psychoanalysis. I have written extensively about the work Chohreh Feyzdjou (b. Teheran 1955 - d. Paris 1996) and this continues to inform my current research, writing and teaching. I am currently working on a single author book which takes cloth as a multidimensional metaphor for ideas of subjectivity, materiality, process and language. I am a Founding Editor of Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, launched March 2003 by Berg Publishers, Oxford, and now edit special themed issues, such as String (2007) and Dust (2009). My earlier curatorial work includes major projects such as Craft Matters, The Subversive Stitch, Under Construction, and Textures of Memory: the poetics of cloth, (all UK touring exhibitions).

Academic qualifications

Art Foundation, University of Brighton
B.A. (Hons) Fine Art, University of Leeds
M.A. Visual Culture, with Distinction, Middlesex University.

Selected publications

Books / Book contributions:

Enfolded Identities; Cloth and Material Presence.
This ongoing (single author) book project supported by Leverhulme Trust and Arts and Humanities Research Council consists of  a series of original essays entitled: touch, weave, fold, stitch/repair/disrepair, stain, matter/dust. Central is an analysis of artwork that explores the emotive qualities of cloth and hair by contemporary artists. The main focus is the physical qualities of cloth, its materiality, evocation of fragility and loss, and the way in which it mediates psychic and somatic space.

‘Lire le Noir / Reading the Black’, in Chohreh Feyzdjou, Tout art est en exile,          Centre National des Arts Plastiques / Isthmé editions, 2007,
ISBN 9782354090036,  (published in French and in English to coincide with
exhibition of same title at CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France*), pp.57-63 French; pp. 191-193 English.
www.evene.fr/culture/agenda/chohreh-feyzdjou-15577.php

'Stain', essay in Shame and Sexuality, Psychoanalysis and Visual Culture, produced by The Freud Museum, London and Middlesex University; edited by Claire Pajaczkowska and Ivan Ward, Routledge, 2007 (forthcoming). Hardback & paperback. (ISBN 9780415420139)

Selected academic journals:

Co-editor (w. Deborah Valoma, California College of the Arts, San Francisco and
Catherine Harper, University of Brighton), DUST, special issue of Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, Berg Publishers, Oxford, Summer 2009. (forthcoming)

'Chohreh Feyzdjou: Tout art est en exil, Pennina Barnett interviews Anne Cadenet',
n. paradoxa, international feminist art journal, 20 Translate/Narrate, 2007,
pp 83-87. (ISSN 1461-0434)

Co-editor (w. Claire Pajaczkowska), STRING, special issue of Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, vol. 5, issue 2, Berg Publishers, Oxford, Summer 2007. (ISSN 1475 9756; ISBN 978 184520 618 5)
Includes Pennina Barnett & Claire Pajaczkowska 'Introduction', pp.109-112.
www.ingentaconnect.com/content/berg/tjcc/2007/00000005/00000002

Founding Co-editor of Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, Berg Publishers, Oxford, the first international inter-disciplinary academic peer review journal in textiles. Launched at Victoria & Albert Museum, March 2003. (ISSN 1475 -9756) (see full cv for list of edited issues)
www.bergpublishers.com/uk/textiles/textile_about.htm

Introductory essay, inaugural issue, Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, Vol 1 issue 1, March 2003, pp. 1-7. Berg Publishers, Oxford.
(ISSN 1475 -9756)
www.ingentaconnect.com/content/berg/tjcc/2003/00000001/00000001

'Small Gestures and Acts of Grace: An Interview with Germaine Koh' in Women: a cultural review, Vol 13, no 3, 2003, pp. 356-369
(ISSN 0957-4042)

'Collection' edited interview with German artist Wiebke Siem, in
n. paradoxa international feminist art journal, volume 9, 2002, pp 5-14
ISSN 1461-0434)

Selected exhibition catalogue essays:

‘Taking Time: The work of Im Sun Cha’ in Cha Imsun, The Quotidian,
Gallery ARTSIDE, Seoul, Korea, 2006,  2 pages (unpaginated).

‘Performing the Drawing’, in  Monica Weiss: Vessels, Chelsea Art Museum,
New York, USA,  2003, p.3 (introduction)
(ISBN 0-9713597-4-1)

'Folds, fragments, surfaces: towards a poetics of cloth', in Textures of Memory:
the poetics of cloth, Angel Row Gallery,Nottingham 1999, pp. 25-34.
(ISBN 0 905 634 39X)

Presentations and exhibitions

Exhibition reviews:

'New Materials and New Media: The Philadelphia Fabric Workshop and Museum at 25 Years.' Crafts, Crafts Council, Sept/October 2003, no. 184, pp. 56-57. (ISSN 306 610X)
'The Quilts of Gee's Bend,' (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York), Crafts no. 182, May / June 2003. pp 50- 51. (ISSN 306-610X)

Most recent curatorial project:

Lead Curator, Textures of Memory: the poetics of cloth, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, 1999-2000. 7 artists: Polly Binns, Maxine Bristow, Caroline Broadhead, Alicia Felberbaum, Marianne Ryan, Verdi Yahooda, Anne Wilson. Toured to Pitshanger Manor & Gallery, London; Piece Hall, Halifax; Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham.

Selected papers presented at major conferences:

2007 Presentation at symposium, 'Chohreh Feyzdjou: Tout art est en exil', CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, France.
2006 'Rupture and Repair in the work of Chohreh Feyzdjou and Doris Salcedo, given at PRESENT Trauma - Art - Representation, Symposium at Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts, University of Bath.
2003 'Folds, Fragments and Surfaces: towards a poetics of cloth', presented at Material og Identitet (Material and Identity) public seminar at Kunsthogskolen i Bergen (Bergen College of Art, Craft & Design), Norway.

Invited speaker - gallery symposia, public lectures & events

2006 'Rupture and Repair in the work of Chohreh Feyzdjou and Doris Salcedo,' Public lecture, Art Department, Reed College, Oregon, USA.
2006 Presentation of artists' work: The Women's Art Library / Make archive launch, Goldsmiths, University of London.
2005 'Femininity and sexuality: contemporary representations.' (with artist Jananne Al-Ani). Public seminar, Living in a Material World series, in conjunction with Arttextiles 3, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery /Goldsmiths, University of London.

Guest speaker - recent lectures - higher education

2006 Seminar and tutorials, Textile Department, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, California USA.
2006 Art Department, Reed College, Oregon, USA, seminars with students.
2005 'Making, Materiality and Memory in the work of Chohreh Feyzdjou and Wiebke Siem', Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
2005 'Soft Logics,' contribution to Fashion and Textiles Autumn lectures series - Aesthetics and Social and Global Responsibility, Royal College of Art, London.'
2003 'Issues in Curating' and 'Materiality and subjectivity in the work of contemporary artists' - two lectures given at Dept. of Fibre and Material Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA.
2003 'Cloth in/e-motion', Fashion and Textiles Autumn lectures series, Royal College of Art, London.

External examiner:

2007 External Examiner, PhD by Project, School of Fashion and Textiles, Royal College of Art.
2006 London Consortium. MA Programme.

Peer reviewing:

2007 Peer review, manuscript of book by Dr. Glenn Adamson, Thinking Through Craft, Berg Publishers, Oxford.
2006 Peer review, academic paper for Mortality, academic journal on death and dying, published by Dept. of Social and Policy Science, University of Bath.
2005 Independent Referee, Leverhulme Trust and Canada Council for the Arts.

Other projects

2006 Narrative Threads, video interviews with artists Audrey Walker, Caroline Broadhead and Erin Short; for CD ROMs archive ••AHRB funded project, Goldsmiths', University of London and University of West of England, Bristol.
www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/constance-howard/research/publications.php

Grants & awards

Individual:
2005-6 Arts & Humanities Research Council, Research Leave Scheme: £15,301
2002-3 Leverhulme Trust, Research Fellowship. £18,691

Institutional:
2003 AHRB. Participant in bid for funds for Narrative Threads, £5,000
CD Rom archive of video interviews with textile artists, Constance Howard Research and Resource Centre, Goldsmiths & University of West of England, Bristol.