until December 19st

Soft Power Playground

Soft Power Playground: soft materials, tall tales at SPOONK

What happens when soft materials tell powerful stories? In Soft Power Playground, SPOONK brings together a group of artists who use textiles, wire, embroidery, fabric, and other tactile materials in surprising ways.

Textiles are no longer just for the sewing room or the craft basket. The artists in this exhibition show how versatile and powerful the material can be. Their work ranges from refined and serene to playful, absurd, colorful, and activist. Through textiles, they tell stories about femininity, identity, connection, vulnerability, care, protest, and the position of women.

In doing so, Soft Power Playground takes a playful look at art history. Handicrafts and textiles were long regarded as 'women's work' and therefore considered inferior to great painting and sculpture. Yet, it is precisely these techniques that are being repurposed by contemporary artists and are finding a distinctive, sometimes humorous, and sometimes critical place within the visual arts.

But Soft Power Playground is not just an exhibition to look at. Alongside the exhibition, SPOONK is organizing various textile workshops where visitors can get hands-on. The workshops tie in with diverse themes from the exhibition and invite you to experiment with thread, fabric, embroidery, and other materials. No experience is necessary: ​​curiosity is.

In this way, the gallery temporarily becomes a playground for art, textiles, and ideas. A place where you can look, create, discover, and strike up a conversation with other visitors. Because soft materials can hold a surprising amount of strength.

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