Introduction

Abstract

This special issue of the Journal of Cloth and Culture is dedicated to Magdalena Abakanowicz who died in April 2017. A number of key curators (Marian Boot, Dominik Kurlek, and Mary Jane Jacob), critics (Jasia Reichardt), art historians (Irena Huml, Marta Kowalewska, and Michal Jachula), artists (Agnieszka Golda), and those who were either taught by Abakanowicz at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland (Anna Goebel, Michelle Héon, and Patricia Leighton), or those who worked with her (Henryk Gac), remember her through many different voices of experience that could be shared with a wider community of practices (Jutta Feddersen). Some authors have revised and edited an already published essay but translated it from Polish to English, or have reworked an essay in a catalog that has not been widely published internationally. The authors come from various countries and regions of the world, from Canada to Paris, from America to Australia, from the UK to Poland.

Essays from Marta Kowaleska and an interview between Kowaleska, Michal Jachula, and Irena Huml place the contribution Abakanowicz made within the broader context of Polish tapestry and Polish culture from the 1960s.

Keywords::

• Magdalena Abakanowicz;
• Boot;
• Feddersen;
• Gac;
• Goebel;
• Golda;
• Héon;
• Jacob;
• Kurlek;
• Jacula;
• Kighton;
• Reihardt;
• fiber art;
• Poland

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Janis Jefferies

JANIS JEFFERIES

Janis Jefferies is an artist, writer, and curator. She is internationally recognized for her curatorial work, publishing, and exhibitions of research practice in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Eastern Europe. She is one of the original three founders of Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture in 2002. With Diana Wood Conroy and Hazel Clarke, she edited The Handbook of Textile Culture. In 2017, her introduction to From Tapestry to Fiber Art. The Lausanne Biennials 1962‒1995 was published by Fondation Toms Pauli Lausanne and Skira Editions Milan. She was chief editor for TECHSTYLE Series 2.0: Ariadne’s Thread, Hong Kong: MILL6 Foundation/CHAT, and author of Ravelling and Unravelling: Myths of Europe, texts, textiles and political metaphors for the EU project, Philosophy of Weaving (as a practice / techne and/or as political metaphor, Nissos Publications in Athens. She exhibited Weaving Europe: Pafos, EU City of Culture, Othellos—Attikon Cultural Centre (Pafos), and Weaving & We, 2016 Hangzhou Fiber Art Triennial, China.  

She is currently concluding The Re-Enchantment of Cloth (2014‒2018), a research program involving the dynamic of smart technology within expressive art fabrics with Professor Barbara Layne, SubTela Studio, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. It investigates embroidered metalwork from the historic textile collections at the V&A that will provide the research which underpins technical methods, aesthetic value, and cultural meaning. As with previous SSHRC grants, Janis Jefferies is the UK collaborator providing the arts and humanities scholarship for creative outputs (journals, book chapters) in addition to technical advice. 

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