Tents, Beds and Clothing: The Evocative Objects of Contemporary Art Textile

A visual language of art textiles includes the everyday material of fabric objects, cloth and clothing that form a conceptual expression through layers of meaning. In contemporary art practice the textile as material object takes its place as an evocative object that speaks not only in signs but of social relations, time, place, identity, the self and belonging. This paper examines a ‘material expressive language’ in which objects are not passive but invite actions and interrelations in the work of Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin and Chiharu Shiota and their use of textile forms and fabric objects as material signifiers. Through a comparison of material and cultural theories of emotive objects, engaged with in a visual language expressed by creative practice, this paper proposes ways in which the textile object, fibre and cloth in contemporary culture and art practice speak in a visual emotive language of objects.