Protest Textiles

 Welcome to Protest Textiles, a PhD Project by Britta Fluevog

Protest textiles are a discipline that I am coining that refers to textiles that are used as a form of protest or textiles utilized within protests. They overlap craftivism and art activism. Protest textiles can be viewed as either a sperate entity or a genre within both disciplines. Some craftivism, such as the Corbett style Craftivism, involves protest and some art activism involves textiles and either would be considered protest textiles.

 

Craftivism came out of and still resides mostly within textiles. Art activism created out of textiles is apt to be called craftivism. Clearly there is an argument that this is not a problem, however, due to the name craftvisim being combined with the word activist, and craftivist projects, taken for what the majority actually are and not nessesarily what they named for, is as Fitzpatrick suggests DIY citizenship, there is a need to have craftivism more resemble what I am terming protest textiles. I use the term protest textiles to distinguish it from traditional Greerist craftivism so that each can have its own goals without requiring either to be what it is not.

 

I am coining the term protest textiles because they are becoming more prevalent, as can be seen by the Pussy Hats at the Women’s March (Saltzman, 2020), and because consigning them to be under the umbrella of only craftivism does them a disservice because craftivism as a whole is not protest, likewise having them be merely a section of art activism dilutes their voice, history and purpose. I am suggesting that the term protest textiles be used to describe this burgeoning field which includes some craftivism and expands beyond it—as many of the artists, myself included, do not associate themselves with craftivism. This text will aim to describe the importance of textiles within art activism and shape some of the history within protest textiles.

 

Protest textiles are understood through reading Julia Bryan Wilson’s Fray: Art + Textile Politics (Saltzman, 2020) that delves into how art practises have approached political textiles; Gregory Sholette’s the Art of Activism and the Activism of Art (2022) that outlines theory and many projects of art activism, as well as having a strong basis of anti-capitalism; Judith Butler’s The force of Nonviolence: an Ethico-Political Bind, which provides a fundamental comprehension of government/ popular media understanding of protests and argues intelligently for non-violent protest (2020); and Kimberle Crenshaw’s ideology of intersectionality that displays how social issue impacts are muliplied and are exponetial factors through combined minority statuses such as race and gender(1995); and through the textile practises of Tanya Aguiñiga (B. 1978-), Sarah Corbett & the Craftivism Collective (2009-), Aram Han Sifuentes (B. 1986-), and Sandra Suubi (B. 1990-) whose practises will be examined further.