Abstract
A material engagement with photography involves an investigation of what is done with photographs as well as how they look and feel. They may be lovingly framed or ruthlessly torn up, encased in a locket or enlarged on screens, hidden in shoeboxes or displayed in museums. Even in their digital formations, we pass them around on our devices, swipe them on touch screens or linger over them with the pointing finger of the cursor's hand-shaped icon. Thinking of photographs as physical forms brings them closer to the realm of textiles; their shared materiality allows for more similarities than difference: they are both inherently tactile. While a number of metaphorical parallels can be drawn between the detail of stitch, grain and pixel, and the shared history of early computing and jacquard weaving is well documented, material ways of thinking about photographs also allow for new interdisciplinary intersections. This commissioned catalogue essay, designed to accompany the 2013 'Beyond Surface and Material' exhibition at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, outlines a range of theoretical ways that photography and textiles can be brought into closer correspondence.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Beyond Surface and Material: Considering the Relationship between Textiles and Photography |
| Editors | M. Little |
| Place of Publication | UK |
| Publisher | Rugby Art Gallery and Museum |
| Pages | 41-43 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780955082979 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2013 |