Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

For our season finale, Amber is in conversation with multi-disciplinary artist and designer Aitor Throup, and Andrew Groves, Professor of Fashion Design at the University of Westminster and founder of the Westminster Menswear Archive. The discussion is a deep dive into the conceptual framework behind Aitor’s practice, considering the avant garde at the intersections of football and fashion, the pa...

Max Leonard and Henry Iddon are in conversation with Amber Butchart about their book, Mountain Style: British Outdoor Clothing 1953 – 2000, and related exhibition at the British Textile Biennial this year. Listen in for discussions on the evolution of outdoor clothing from mountain summit to street, moving from Everest in 1953 to football terraces and rave subcultures, as well as the factors that...

Amber Butchart talks to artists Dhara Mehrotra and Ninon Ardisson who are both creating work for the British Textile Biennial this year. Tune in to hear them discuss everything from mycelium to slime mould and our potential to learn from these networks, as well as their radical potential for textile futures, biomimicry in design, and the false dichotomy between art and science. Hosted on Acast. Se...

Amber Butchart is in conversation with artist and academic Claire Wellesley-Smith, about their co-curated exhibition The Synthetic Revolution. The show looks at the development of the first polyester fibre made from crude oil by-products in Accrington, which was later branded with the name Terylene. They discuss how this local story became not only global but intergalactic in the post-war decades...

Amber Butchart talks to artists Tania Candiani and Porfirio Gutiérrez about their work centred on cochineal. The cactus-dwelling cochineal insect can be used to produce a bright red pigment, a sacred indigenous colour which was exploited by colonial powers following the Spanish conquest of the area today known as Mexico. This colour transformed European art, but at a great cost. They discuss land,...

Amber Butchart is joined by artists Sarah Rosalena and Crystal Bennes about their work which inspired by residencies at major scientific facilities: Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles County, California, and CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland, the home of the Large Hadron Collider. They discuss the erasure of women and people of colour from conventional scien...

Amber Butchart is joined by artist Lucy Orta who has an expansive survey exhibition of her work with her partner Jorge at the Biennial this year, and writer and professor Jessica Hemmings. They discuss everything from texts to textiles, incarceration and craft, and how Lucy’s work highlights humanity’s impact on the planet, including themes such as displacement, climate change, and migration. Host...

Amber Butchart talks to artists Christine Borland and Eva Sajovic about everything from feminism to fustian. Both Christine and Eva are exhibiting at the British Textile Biennial in the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, notorious today for the Pendle witch trials in the early 17th century that saw 10 people executed for witchcraft. They explore the status, power and identity of women in early...

Amber Butchart talks to researcher Dr Mila Burcikova of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion and artist Rebecca Chesney. Tune in for discussions on fashion, agriculture, and regenerative potentials, festival textile waste, and the fashion seasons vs the actual seasons. As well as art and bees, and tending our wardrobes in the same way we would tend our gardens.  Hosted on Acast. See acast....

Amber Butchart is joined by artists Victoria Udondian and Ibukun Baldwin, both of whom are creating incredible collaborative pieces for the British Textile Biennial this year. Tune in for discussions on migration, clothing and economic empowerment as well as the power of clothing and textiles in storytelling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amber Butchart talks to artists Nick Jordan and Jacob Cartwright, poet Emily Oldfield and English Heritage historian Andrew Hann. They discuss Larksong - a collaborative work by Nick and Jacob for this year’s British Textile Biennial which was a joint commission with English Heritage, and takes place at the nonconformist place of worship, Goodshaw Chapel in Rossendale. Tune in to hear about how ha...

Amber Butchart talks to artist Hendrickje Schimmel (Tenant of Culture), and Cottonopolis Collective researchers Arianna Tozzi and Ali Browne. They discuss their work for the British Textile Biennial this year, which includes investigation of pollution and the environmental impact of the textile industries, the problems with unchecked consumer culture, the life cycles of garments, and the intersect...

Amber Butchart is joined by curators Uthra Rajgopal, Ligaya Salazar and Vancci Wahn who are each curating a group show for the British Textile Biennial this year. They discuss the practice of curating textiles, including themes such as indigeneity, craft practices, regenerative knowledge, and sustainability and labour. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amber Butchart is joined by artists Jeremy Hutchison, and Sunny Dolat of the Nest Collective. They discuss one of the major themes of the British Textile Biennial this year: textile waste imperialism. It’s a deep dive into how the trade in secondhand clothes from the Global North is mapped directly onto previous colonial routes and relationships, reproducing those same inequalities. Hosted on Acas...

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.  Featuring Bharti Parmar, Artist and Academic and Tiwirayi Ndoro Fashion Photographer and Stylist. Focussing on four fabrics – silk, linen, wool an...

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.  Featuring Gillian Berry, Manager at The Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington and artist and Professor of Contemporary Art, Lubaina Himid. Focussing o...

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.  Featuring Sally Tuckett, Lecturer in Dress and Textile Histories at University of Glasgow and Teleica Kirkland, Lecturer in Cultural and Historica...

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.  The podcast looks at the importance of wool in the the world of textile manufacturing and production. Featuring writer and knitter Esther Rutter a...

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.  Featuring Alison Toplis, research fellow at Wolverhampton University and author of The Hidden History of the Smock Frock and Justine Aldersey-Will...

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.  Featuring Dr Anna Garnet, Curator for the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology and Fiona McKelvie of McBurney and Black, specialists...

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.  Featuring Biologist and writer Arathi Prasad and Physician and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Paul Blanc. Focussing on fou...

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.  Featuring Rachel Midgeley, Curator at The Gawthorpe Textile Collection and Design Historian Sarah Cheang shedding light on our textile history loo...