The second international conference on “Text, Texture, Textile” is to be held at the University of Rouen, France on December 10th and 11th 2009.
Using the Bayeux tapestry as a reference, considering its influence on the Overlord Embroidery exhibited in Portsmouth, Britain or the Ros Tapestry in Ireland, we address the question of the choice of textile as a medium adapted to writing or rewriting history. We will see that the appropriation of a feminine or popular form of art can give birth to a new form of propaganda but can also open official channels to new voices.
The exhibition “Pricked, Extreme Embroidery” at the Museum of Arts and Design in New-York offers a range of contemporary creations that question clichés about this minor form of art and open perspectives towards new fields such as medecine or economics. The purpose of this conference is to bring together curators, artists and academics who specialise in history, sociology, arts, cultural studies or literature.
Papers of no more than 25 minutes are welcome on the following topics:
– The analysis of a specific embroidery, how it was produced, how it fits in history, its capacity to shape history.
– The metaphor of embroidery in literature, the staging of the Embroiderer as a character, the pertinence of the vocabulary of embroidery to analyse a text as a form of embroidery.
– The role of embroidery in the economy, its pertinence in projects dealing with the reinsertion of women in some communities.
– The place of embroidery in haute-couture.
Most of the papers will be given in English so as to facilitate the debate with our international guests from the United States, Britain, Ireland or India.
Contact:
Professor Nicole Terrien or emerfahy@eircom.net
Université de Rouen
76821 Mont Saint Aignan Cedex
France
nicole.terrien@free.fr