I will present Cultural Threads at the Decorum-suite: l'Envers du Tapis conference taking place at the Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Paris January 21, 2014 in conjunction with the exhibition Decorum: carpets and tapestries by artists at the The Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. The lecture will consider the work of contemporary artists and designers who work at the intersection of multiple national or cultural influences and use textiles as their vehicle. Ideas about belonging to more than one place, which in reality results in a sense of connection to everywhere and nowhere simultaneously, are pertinent to society today more than ever. So too are the multiple, often overlooked, histories behind the objects that make up our material world. Postcolonial thinking, particularly an attention to hybrid cultural identities and contemporary migration, and the presence of these ideas in contemporary textile practice is the central concern of this lecture.

image: Theaster Gates, courtesy of White Cube