Constance Howard Gallery

Talking Textiles is a get-together for anybody interested in textiles and curious to find out more about the Goldsmiths Textile Collection. A small selection of textiles from the Collection is available for viewing and discussion at the Constance Howard Gallery. For those keen to be involved further, there is the opportunity to research a chosen textile and to share findings or questions at the following session.

This session on ‘Cross-Cultural Textiles: Indian influences’ will be led by Jasleen Kandhari, Lecturer, Indian Textiles & Dress at University of Oxford and PhD Scholarship Candidate on the Indian textiles trade to Kenya.

New and recent textile work, emerging from a lifelong pursuit of an understanding of stitch and textile.

After 50 years away from Goldsmiths, textile artist and scholar Anne Morrell returns to the Constance Howard Gallery to present her work in a significant exhibition. Anne’s artistic practice is characterised by an ongoing interest in chasing tensions and changing states – in processes or materials that are constantly shifting and moving. The particular type of mark-making that Anne enlists is a product of her extensive knowledge and research across Indian textiles and British embroidery. Her work reflects a drive to arrive at an elaboration or expression of ‘stitch’ that defies categorisation, taking apart preconceptions of hand stitch within specific cultural or institutional contexts.

If you would like more information about this exhibition, Check out the event page or past exhibitions at Constance Howard Gallery.

The Goldsmiths Textile Collection and Constance Howard Gallery is pleased to host an exhibition of works by the winner of the Christine Risley Award 2017, Clémentine Marie Jeanne Durand-Bedos.

The award was made in recognition of the strength of her performance work ‘Contagious Hystories’, performed during the BA (Hons) Fine Art Degree Show. An associated film will be on exhibit at the Constance Gallery, along with photographic documentation by the audience and garments hand-made by the artist.

A Remedy for Rents showcased a rare collection of exceptionally fine needlework by working-class women students at Whitelands College from the last quarter of the 19th century. The women were training to teach in elementary schools for working-class children and their needlework focused on the production and repair of simple garments and household textiles. The exhibition illuminated the history of working-class dress, female education and gendered roles, experiences and expectations in 19th-century Britain and beyond.

This student-led exhibition aimed to instigate a dialogue between archival sources from the Goldsmiths Textiles Collection and the contemporary work of five students from the BA Fine Art & History of Art course. Taking an equal interest in practice and theory, the artists were intrigued by the historical presence of textiles in Goldsmiths and its influence on the textile-based practices of current students. Using the Goldsmiths Textile Collection’s rich material resources, the artists created new works based on selected archival objects pertaining to their individual interests.

The exhibition was accompanied by two seminars enabling discussion and handling of items from the Collection.