Delcy Morelos - origo - Barbican, London

Delcy Morelos - origo

 

Delcy Morelos is a Columbian artist who makes all of her artworks by hand.  Her large installation, origo, made of soil, was outside the Barbican, London, until the end of July 2026.  

Meaning origin in latin, origo, was inspired by Andean and Amazonian traditional world views.  The material it was formed from, soil/earth, is seen as life giving and receiving, where food is grown and bodies are buried - the cycle of life.

Delcy Morelos - origo surface

It was 24m wide and took 10 tonnes of earth and clay that was applied over a month by Morelos and her team.  It consisted of a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, hay, soil and clay (and perhaps a little concrete?). It was rock hard and was applied over a wooden structure. 

Polo shaped, though more elliptical than round, part of it is like a tunnel/cave that you can walk through.  Internally it is quite dark and plant matter hangs down from the sides. Morelos calls the cave like structures within origo, profundis, and these are deemed to resemble burial sites.  Morelos sees the installation as both monumental (in scale) and humble (in terms of its materials). 

Delcy Morelos - Inside origo

It is pierced by a number of trapezoidal doorways into the structure and through it. (see first and last images) 

Origo appears suspended as though it is hovering just above ground level...

Delcy Morelos - Floating origo

The installation and the Barbican bear the traces of touch and a shared texture - origo by its handmade nature, and the Barbican with its rough concrete finish.

I got to see origo at the end of its show and would have liked to have seen it in the making too.  (And I would've liked to have tried climbing on it but that wasn't allowed).  It would have been even more impressive if it was twice the height and made entirely of soil and clay but I imagine time, resources and health & safety concerns probably precluded that.

Thread - Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London

Wycliffe Stutchbury - Shore Road (detail), 2025
Salvaged western red cedar shingles on cotton twill

 

At the Sarah Myerscough Gallery in London, we are told that this is an exhibition of contemporary woven work but I think the title "Thread" sums it up better. Nineteen international artists show their work here deriving their "thread" from recycled rubber, roots, flax, feathers, cotton, raffia, reeds and more.  On until the 16 May 2026, this exhibition is definitely worth a look.  Here are some of my favourites...

Wycliffe Stutchbury - Shore Road, 2025
Salvaged western red cedar shingles on cotton twill

I loved the variation in colours, shapes and textures of Stutchbury's piece

Diana Scherer - Apical #6, 2025
Plant root textile and jute

Diana Scherer's work is fascinating.  She develops her root textile pieces by growing her plants through specially designed moulds.

Lucy Williams - Where things rest, 2026
Californian pine needles, lapping cane, dried seaweed, mixed leaves, wood, linen, cotton mixed seeds and flax thread

Lucy Williams' small scale forms were quite a contrast to a lot of the large scale work on show.  I wanted to pick them up and examine them.

Patrick Bongoy - In the Wind, 2026
Rubber inner tubing, valves on board

Patrick Bongoy's pieces had a certain amount of drama and looked like creatures about to approach. They are created from strips of recycled inner tubing, braided, woven and stitched.

Taylor Kibby -Double Skin 14, 2025 
Terracotta, embroidery thread, steel wire and glass beads

I was amazed to discover that Taylor Kibby's pieces, which looked like knitting from a distance, were actually made of terracotta.

Aude Franjou - Forest Nests
Sculpted linen dyed in shades of green

Aude Franjou's linen fibre, wrapped in linen twine, looked like sinuous roots and were indeed intended to look like plant forms.

Ann Coddington - Constellation, Set 1, 2025
Mixed Fibres

Ann Coddington uses a number of techniques to make her basket-like forms, some of which resemble parts of the body.

Annette Mills - Both Sides Now, 2026,
Jute, willow bark, waxed twine & raffia,
Enclosed 3, 2025
Willow, willow bark, daffodil leaf, linen, jute, raffia & cane
 Enclosed 2, 2025
Willow, daffodil leaf and cane

Annette Mills densely layers her plant materials using basketry techniques

Lin Fanglu - She's Hill No 2, 2023
Cotton cloth and cotton thread

Lin Fanglu, winner of the 2021 Loewe prize, has gathered, wrapped and sculpted her cloth into a varied series of forms.  Everytime you look you see something new.

The Sarah Myerscough Gallery is at 18 Balderton Street, London which is not far from Selfridges.  It doesn't have a typical gallery front - you can't see the work from the street.  You have to ring a doorbell and be buzzed in.  Don't let this put you off as the exhibition is well worth a visit.

Chiharu Shiota & Yin Xiuzhen at the Hayward Gallery - London

Chiharu Shiota - Threads of Life

 

Two exhibitions on at the Hayward Gallery in London, until 3 May 2026, are Chiharu Shiota - Threads of Life, and Yin Xiuzhen - Heart to Heart.  Both feature large scale immersive textile installations.  Shiota draws on her own experiences and engulfs everyday objects in webs of wool to express universal human concerns. Yin Xiuzhen is renowned for her use of secondhand clothing, concrete, food and household ephemera in her sculptures to express ideas about the individual, society and memory.

Chiharu Shiota - Threads of Life

One of the things that intrigues me about such exhibitions is how they were installed.  So - Threads of Life (pictured above) took 10 people (five from the Hayward Installation Team and five from Chiharu Shiota's Studio) 12 days to install and the gallery attendant thought there were 4000 keys.  Apparently Shiota's team bring the top layer of threads from which everything else hangs.  I don't know whether Shiota oversaw the installation.  Threads of Life features red wool, a double door & keys.  Shiota believes that people are connected  by an invisible thread which she represents here with red wool. The keys represent both the security of locking the door to your home but also the possibility of opening doors to new possibilities.

Chiharu Shiota - State of Being (Dress)

Shiota uses found objects in her work that she comes across in her daily life.  She tells us that clothes carry memories and traces of the wearer and, for example, even without the wearer's presence, the dress above represents a state of being.  A web of threads fills the surrounding space.  When Shiota can no longer see where a single thread leads she considers the work complete.

Chiharu Shiota - Letters of Thanks

Letters of Thanks contains within it letters of gratitude and thanks that members of the public had left at the gallery. A collecting box for these was at the gallery entrance and letters could still be left.  Shiota thinks it is sometimes easier to write a letter of thanks than to say it.  Letters have been collected from around the world where iterations of this installation have already been exhibited.

Chiharu Shiota - During Sleep

When Shiota first moved to Germany she lived in several different places and would wake up disorientated and wonder where she was.  She began weaving yarn around herself to create her own cocoon. This idea is developed here in During Sleep. At certain times during the exhibition performers sleep in the beds.  Shiota likes the traces of existence they leave - crumpled sheets and dented pillows.  It's hard to imagine how they actually get through the threads to the beds though. 

Yin Xiuzhen - Heart to Heart

Yin Xiuzhen - International Flight & Portable Cities

International Flight & Portable Cities are exhibited as a baggage reclaim complete with a plane above. The suitcases are spilling open on the conveyor belt.  Each contains a different city that Yin Xiuzhen has visited.  The used clothing that is stitched into these cites was collected from inhabitants of those cities.

Yin Xiuzhen - A Heart to Heart

Unlike Portable Cities which have been shrunken to fit in suitcases, A Heart to Heart has been enlarged so you can walk and sit inside it.  Yin Xiuzhen hopes it will inspire people to have meaningful conversations.

Yin Xiuzhen - Wall Instrument No. 17

Yin Xiuzhen traps unusual materials in a ceramic base.  Here, in Wall Instrument No. 17, fabric and buttons emerge from the porcelain like flaws and fractures.  She sees this as representing the changing landscape of her home city of Beijing and also the tensions between society and the individual.

Yin Xiuzhen - Collective Subconscious

Collective Subconscious is a minibus that has been elongated with textile sections giving a caterpillar-like appearance.  Because it is constructed from clothing from 400 people, all with different experiences, Yin Xiuzhen sees it as a collective subconscious.  Inside, the colours of the clothing give a stained glass type of light.  A song by Wang Feng - Beijing, Beijing - is playing inside the minibus.  It reflects Chinese people's complicated relationship to a changing Beijing.  She sees this as a spiritual place.

These are fascinating exhibitions that are well worth a visit - go see...

Textiles: The Art of Mankind at the Fashion & Textile Museum, London

Wodaabe Artisans - Young Woman's Wrapped Skirt (detail) 

The main exhibition on at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London is Textiles: The Art of Mankind. This exhibition celebrates the ancient relationship between textiles, people and the environment. Amazing textile techniques that have been developed across the world are illustrated.  It shows skills handed down through generations, and illustrates people's thoughts and histories.  It is organised through themes of materials, identity, collaboration, and sustainability.  Here is just a flavour of the items on display.

The Wodaabe skirt above is embroidered in chain stitch in patterns meaningful to these migratory people.

Tuvalu - Pandanus Skirt for the traditional Te Fatele song/dance

This skirt from Tuvalu, a pacific Polynesian island, is coloured using natural dyes including bark juice, burnt nut soot and turmeric root. 

Grace "Molly" Crowfoot - Peruvian Backstrap Loom Model

The above piece of double weave cloth was made by Crowfoot in the 1920s to understand ancient textile techniques.  Crowfoot could be described as a English textile archeologist.

French Basketmaker - Nest Basket

Inspired by birds' nests, this basket by a French basketmaker, uses twigs, branches, wire and nails. 

Chinese Artisans - Baby's Tiger Hat

Made in the early 1900s, this tiger hat has moveable tassels that would move with the baby's head.

Sara Impey - Why Stitch?

Sara Impey's piece Why Stitch makes an argument for the importance of textiles. One of the quotes stitched on this, which resonates with me - "Anyone who loves textiles, touches them. It is an instinct" - Jessica Hemmings 2012. That's just so true - they are so tactile.  Sara's artwork is made from calico fabric with free-motion machine-stitching and machine-quilting with polyester thread.

Bogolanfini Cloth

Bogolanfini cloths are worn by hunters as camouflage, for status and as ritual protection or by women as they reach adulthood or after childbirth.  Traditionally these cloths were woven by men on narrow looms and dyed by women.

Tadek Beutlich - Figures in Cocoons 2

Made from PVA soaked cotton wool, modelled over a woven structure of esparto grass, this piece features helpless people, and is supposed to reflect the trauma of war.

Jo Ann C Stabb - Swan Song - My last academic plan ever

This wearable art coat is made from appliqued recycled industrial silk scraps with dollar signs hand embroidered round the bottom to signify "the bottom line".  The inside is stamped with the different stages of the academic planning process.

English Artisan - Sweet Bag

This drawstring bag is an example of goldwork from the mid 16th Century and has intertwined hearts on the front, a symbol of love and devotion.

Rajasthan Dyer - Just dyed cotton cloth

This cloth from India is an example of tie dyeing from the 1980s, that has been dipped several times.  The patterns are supposed to evoke the waves formed by winds blowing across the desert sands. 

Lynne Setterington - Been Shopping

Reflecting on our preoccupation with retail therapy, Setterington has created this piece from Suffolk puffs made from plastic carrier bags that reflect her own retail preferences.  More of Lynn Setterington's work is on display in the Connecting Threads exhibition in the Museum's Fashion Studio and is really interesting.  For more on that click here.

Both exhibitions are on until Sunday 7 September 2025. There is no cafe in the Fashion and Textile Museum but there are plenty close by and the Museum does have a shop.  London Bridge station is a short walk away.

Connecting Threads - Lynn Setterington at the Fashion & Textile Museum, London

Lynn Setterington - Respect + Protect - 2009

On a recent trip to London I went to the Fashion & Textile Museum to see Lynn Setterington's Connecting Threads exhibition in the Museum's Fashion Studio. Lynn is a socially engaged textile artist who has worked with many different communities to co-create textile pieces that bear a message.  Here's a flavour of Connecting Threads.

The picture above is the result of an Arts & Science partnership project with Professor of Microbiology at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), Joanna Verran.  Working with different communities across Manchester, they produced this quilt for World Aids Day in 2009. Paricipants added red cross stitches to this piece  which acts as a reminder that the virus continues to affect people's lives.

This is one of Setterington's early embroideries, rooted in place and representative of everyday life...

Lynn Setterington - Leeds Market - 1984
Hand & Machine Embroidery

A number of Lynn's textile projects have been influenced by the signature quilt or cloth.  These items date back to the first half of the 19th century in the USA and initially bore the names of families and friends. Later, the signature quilt/cloth was used as a means of fundraising for good causes or particular projects.  People paid to sign their name on cloth which was then embroidered creating a finished piece bearing embroidered supporters' signatures. 

"Remembering Emily" was made to commemorate Emily Wilding Davison, a suffragette who was accidentally killed by the King's horse at the Epsom Derby, whilst trying to make her protest. One hundred years later, Setterington got staff and students at MMU to embroider their names on cotton fabric which were later machine stitched together into a 10m long banner...

Lynn Setterington - Remembering Emily - 2013

In "Signature Bags", these bags bear the names of members of Katab, a group of textile artisans, in Ahmedabad, India.  Made from khadi cloth, these bags, by bearing names, acknowledge the makers whose skills and work so often go unidentified...

Lynn Setterington - Signature Bags - 2011

 
"Threads of Identity" was made to commemorate the death of Ahmed Iqbal Ullah, a young boy killed in 1986 as a result of a racially motivated crime at a school in south Manchester. Working with 16 boys from Burnage Academy, Setterington got them to collect the names of 10 people important in their lives and to embroider these names on white cotton handkerchiefs within the letters spelling Burnage Academy 4 Boys. These were then stitched together using a faggoting machine to create the wall hanging, shown below, that has been on display at the school ever since...

Lynn Setterington - Threads of Identity - 2016

This piece, made by Setterington, draws attention to the Construction industry which has the highest suicide rate of any sector...

Lynn Setterington - Pearly King of Eccles

The "World Wellbeing Map" is a comment on climate change.  Made by over 100 people learning English at Oldham Library and MMU students, it highlights rising sea temperatures.  Made by hand, it upcycles products from the construction industry - thread from discarded debris netting stitched into rendering mesh...

Lynn Setterington - World Wellbeing Map - 2024

Setterington has also used the Suffolk Puff or YoYo (American) in many of her pieces. These are gathered circles of fabric that make a decorative rosette. Below is "House" made from debris netting gathered up into Suffolk puffs and stitched together, commenting on the housing crisis, lack of affordable homes and poor mental health of construction workers...

Lynn Setterington - House (detail) - 2024

Made during the Covid Crisis, "Living with Loss", apes historic samplers but with a modern twist by repurposing materials from the construction industry.  The loss of a loved one is something we all have to face at some time in our lives.  The unfinished nature of the piece is purposeful...

Lynn Setterington - Living with Loss - 2020

This is a really interesting exhibition and there are also some short films about some of the projects exhibited here but also about a project, Sew Near - Sew Far (2017), developed with the Bronte Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire. Here the pseudonymous male signatures of the Bronte sisters (Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell), found at the museum, were writ large on Haworth Moor where it could be read by walkers on the Bronte Way.  The signatures were made from debris netting which themselves contained the stitched signatures of participants in the project.  These signatures were stitched into the debris netting with a wool and string mix. 

This exhibition is on until Sunday 7 September 2025 in the Museum's Fashion Studio, which is sometimes closed for special events and workshops, so please check ahead if you want to be sure of access.  There is also a Connecting Threads book by Setterington, on sale in the museum shop, which is an interesting read.

Textiles: The Art of Mankind is in the main gallery - blogpost coming soon.

There is no cafe in the Fashion and Textile Museum but there are plenty close by and the Museum does have a shop.  The Museum is a short walk from London Bridge station.

Prism Textiles - Any Other Business, Art Pavilion, Mile End, London

Lynne Chapman - The 90% Beneath (detail)

 

I have recently been to Prism Textiles' annual exhibition at the Art Pavilion, Mile End, London.  Prism are an international group of textile artists who push the boundaries of textile art and promote its visibility.  They  exhibit annually at this lovely venue.  Prism members also run a variety of free workshops during the exhibition so it's well worth getting the date in your diary for future years!

This year's title and theme was "Any Other Business" which was diversely interpreted and showcased a wide variety of techniques.  Here's a few of my favourites...

Lynne Chapman - The 90% Beneath

Lynne Chapman's iceberg shows us the 10% of life that is made up of planned events versus the other 90% which is made up of the mundane that keeps everything going or "the unsung powerhouse of chores" as Lynne puts it. How very true!

I liked the use of a carpet making technique in Sally Spinks' cigarettes - "Fine Line". The piece draws attention to an industry that kills people and continues to lobby to promote its interests...

Sally Spinks - Fine Line

Nerissa Cargill Thompson's "12 Percent" presents a pie chart of where our plastic goes: 46% incinerated, 25% goes to landfill, 17% exported, leaving only 12% recycled in the UK.  This was a colourful and unusual way to illustrate our plastic problem...

Nerissa Cargill Thompson - 12 Percent

Pauline Cattle presents beauty, pattern and colour in everyday natural processes.  I particularly liked the contrasts of colour and texture in this piece...

Pauline Cattle - Drippings l

Helen O'Leary's poignant pieces "Mending l" suggests that repairing damage to garments adds its own story to a garment's history and is restorative to both the garment and the mender whereas "Losing Touch" draws attention to our frailty as we age...

Helen O'Leary - Losing Touch 1 & Mending 1

Jeryl Church's piece "Conspicuous Consumption" made from till receipts and packaging materials draws attention to our need to address our uncontrolled consumerism.  I loved Jeryl's use of consumerist packaging to highlight this issue...

Jeryl Church - Conspicuous Consumption (detail)

Julieanne Long's piece is inspired by the worry of environmental destruction through climate change and the lack of govermental action across the world to address this issue.  I thought this piece looked like fleeting thoughts passing through one's mind...

Julieanne Long - A Sense of Place (detail)

Sharon Kearley's work considers the duality of the fragility of life and the gratitude for love and memories experienced while living.  I liked how the rust had changed the textile...

Sharon Kearley

In Amanda Bloom's "Reliquaries" we are asked to consider what things we might hold sacred.  I loved the colours and intriguing objects in Amanda's "Reliquaries"...

Amanda Bloom - Reliquaries (detail)

Sue Reddish's two works, "Patched" & "Pieced", use cotton, a textile from which Manchester made its fortune, to explore Manchester's business transitions and changing cityscape.  The colours and composition of these pieces were great...

Sue Reddish - Patched & Pieced

Judith Isaac Lewis harnesses the power of weeds, plants usually disregarded and disliked, to ecoprint and dye her work to beautiful effect...

Judith Isaac Lewis - Overlooked 1

There were, of course, many other amazing works and artists.  The above represents just a small selection.  Prism's exhibition is over for this year but do look out for next year's and visit if you can.

If you want to read about Prism's exhibition last year you can find it here.