As part of the Goldsmiths Graduate Festival, Constance Howard Gallery hosts a unique exhibition of the Goldsmiths Textile Collection and the Lloyd Collection of east European materials. This collaborative project brings together anthropologists and artists to turn the gallery into an interdisciplinary hub and lab to experiment with ‘folklore’. We have joined forces to question the value and utopia
embedded in folk objects and to experiment with archival textures and patterns. We conceptualize the archive as an open resource and a site of contestation to make a playful connection between the threads. Actually, you can follow three red directions inside the space of the gallery. One uses details from the archive in the form of photographs, inviting the possibility of re-assembling the archive. A separate project brings into the gallery objects that sit in tension with the space of the archive. A third perspective uses the folk pattern as a springboard for innovation. We invite everyone interested in material culture, folklore, music, Eastern Europe, fabrics or archives to visit the gallery, attend the events and make playful connections between the threads. Curators Magda Buchczyk, Gabriela Nicolescu and Alexandra Urdea
We invite you to the following events:
15th of May
12.00 Exhibition opening
Textile workshop
5.30 pm Folk dance afternoon
Come and join us for the opening of the exhibition. The day finishes with a one-hour lesson in Romanian folk dance, and a hora. Part of the Goldsmiths Graduate festival
20th of May
4pm Roundtable discussion and reception
Magda Buchczyk, Gabriela Nicolescu and Alexandra Urdea in conversation with their guests, anthropologists and artists. We will be asking questions about the politics of the archives and the value of objects and patterns, about the utopia of ‘folklore’, and the attempt to reengage with materials.
