Fearless Makers

Turner Contemporary’s Groundbreaking Exhibition Questions Fine Art, Craft, Materiality And Gender.

- Pamela NG

Bird quills, yoghurt, horsehair and plants are some of the unconventional materials at Turner Contemporary’s groundbreaking ‘Entangled Threads & Making’. Opened on 28 January, by Frances Morris, Director of Tate Modern, this is a major exhibition, surveying over 100 artworks created between 1918 and 2016, of sculpture, installation, tapestry, textiles and jewellery. Showing until 7 May, it features over 40 international female artists, spanning several generations, whose making processes and artworks bridge and redefine the worlds of fine art and craft. The exhibition expands the debate on materiality, how it is informed by the human experience and how it shifts perspectives while deepening our understanding of art history.

The moment you enter the exhibition through the lift, Samara Scott’s site-specific ‘Old Lake’, overwhelms you with its colours, scents and materials, an intriguing mix of yoghurt, carpet and food coloring. Using the lift as an extension of the exhibition beyond the galleries is a first in the history of Turner Contemporary.