The Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers
in ‘Soft Power’, Das Minks Kunsthaus, Potsdam
16 March – 11 August 2024
Installation view of the exhibition Soft Power, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam 2024. © The Estate of Rosemary Mayer, Hamid Zénati Estate, Candis Pettway, Qunnie Pettway / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York /DACS, London and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Ladislav Zajac
Installation view of the exhibition Soft Power, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam 2024. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, The Estate of Rosemary Mayer, Candis Pettway, Photo: Ladislav Zajac
Installation view of the exhibition Soft Power, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam 2024. © Estate of Ella Mae Irby / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Ladislav Zajac
Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers are included in the group exhibition ‘Soft Power’ at the MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam, opening 16 March 2024.
The exhibition will present textile design as a means of artistic expression and emphasises the possibility of questioning power relations. Curated by Daniel Milnes, the exhibition highlights different aspects of textile art in three chapters.
In the first chapter, ‘Invisible Hands’, the exhibition focuses on the production conditions of textiles and their raw materials.
The second chapter is titled ‘Breaking Patterns’. Textile patterns are discussed here, which are often based on the repetition of graphic structures, which in turn go back to long traditions and can convey information about power hierarchies or status.
In the third chapter, ‘Threads of Ancestors’, connecting lines to the past are shown. The historical and contemporary works in this chapter draw on past traditions that continue to resonate today, illustrating how individual threads can connect into fabrics and larger networks. […]