BTB23

Christine Borland's Projection Cloth installed inside The Cruck Barn during BTB23

Christine Borland, Projection Cloth, Photo – Jack Bolton

The 2023 British Textile Biennial presented a programme that focused on the issue of sustainability in textile production, asking whether it can ever be a regenerative enterprise, environmentally and socially. Artists from Benin to Bangladesh presented work that takes active steps to address the legacy of colonialism while others look back on its pre-industrial history.

The industrial revolution transformed rural East Lancashire into an engine of fast fashion at the epicentre of a web that stretched across the globe; commandeering human and environmental resources across continents in a vicious cycle of labour, manufacture and trade that persists today and which we now know is unsustainable.

The third edition of the British Textile Biennial (BTB23) traced the routes of fibres and fabrics across continents and centuries to and from the north of England in a series of commissions and exhibitions throughout October in the spaces left behind by the Lancashire textile industry.

From the so-called ‘slave cloth’, spun and woven by hand on the Pennine moors, to the bales of used fast fashion that make their way from British high streets to the markets and toxic mountains of waste in West Africa, BTB23 followed that journey.

Highlights of the 2023 British Textile Biennial included a keynote by Gus Casely-Hayford, installations by The Nest Collective, Victoria Udondian, Tenant of Culture, and Thierry Oussou, a new performance by Common Wealth, new commissions by Christine Borland, Rebecca Chesney, Nick Jordan and Jacob Cartwright, sculpture by Jeremy Hutchison and a major exhibition by South Asian artists from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Britain.

Penistone Cloth projection piece installed in Blackburn Museum

The Penistone Cloth Installation, Photo – Matthew Savage

Fast, Fast, Slow show at The Exchange in Blackburn during BTB23

2023 Events

Christine Borland's Projection Cloth installed inside The Cruck Barn during BTB23

Christine Borland

Projection Cloth

In Christine Borland’s installation, four films were cast onto a Projection Cloth of a material called fustian, which is a mix of linen warp and cotton weft, historically associated with Lancashire.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
The Cruck Barn
Jeremy Hutchison in his Dead White Man Costume in Dakar.

Jeremy Hutchison

Dead White Man

In a series of sculptures, billboards and public workshops, Jeremy Hutchison’s cloth monsters stalked our streets, bringing back the clothes that we have discarded as a shocking reminder of our over-consumption of fashion.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Various venues
Equilibrium Wind installed at The Exchange as part of BTB23

Thierry Oussou

Equilibrium Wind

The Cotton Exchange in Blackburn was built in 1865 to sell raw cotton picked by enslaved African labourers in the plantations of the Caribbean and American colonies to mill owners in Lancashire.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
The Exchange
The Penistone Cloth exhibition installed at Blackburn Museum during BTB23

The Penistone Cloth – Textiles and Slavery

From the Pennines to Barbados and Beyond

At first glance it seems quite insignificant; a small, fragile piece of ancient blue cloth. However, this tiny, extraordinary fragment contains threads that stretch across the globe and weaves legacies that we continue to trace and unpick to this day.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery
Fragments of Our Time installed at The Whitaker during BTB23

Fragments of Our Time

Curated by Uthra Rajgopal

Fragments of Our Time presented contemporary textile artworks by 17 South Asian artists and artisans from the UK, USA, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh whose concepts and materials relate to the environment, economies or societies and are displayed throughout the house, itself built for a textile mill owner at the height of Britain’s colonial expansion in India.

29/09/2023 - 10/12/2023
The Whitaker
Conditions at Present installed on the lawn of Towneley Hall during BTB23

Rebecca Chesney

Conditions at Present

Tents provide shelter in times of crisis or displacement, but they perform a very different role at music festivals where it is more common for cheap tents to be discarded than taken away by their temporary inhabitants.

29/09/2023 - 30/11/2023
Towneley Hall
Fast, Fast, Slow show at The Exchange in Blackburn during BTB23

Fast, Fast, Slow

By Common Wealth

Fast, Fast, Slow was a unique performance exploring the complexity of our personal relationships to fashion, fast fashion and waste.

26/10/2023 - 29/10/2023
The Exchange
Material Memory installed in Blackburn Cathedral Crypt for BTB23

Material Memory

Nothing holds memories better than fabric. Passed down through generations for commemoration or passed on for safe care in dangerous times, it is mobile, mendable and holds memories within its threads.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Blackburn Cathedral
Larksong performance at Goodshaw Chapel during BTB23

Nick Jordan & Jacob Cartwright

Larksong

Collaborative artists Nick Jordan and Jacob Cartwright presented a new film installation, Larksong, in Goodshaw Chapel, a nonconformist Baptist chapel established by textile workers and farm labourers in 1760 and now owned by English Heritage.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Goodshaw Chapel
Return to Sender installed at The Exchange, Blackburn as part of BTB23

The Nest Collective

Return to Sender

Return to Sender is a film and ambient soundtrack, which is a compilation of sounds recorded at various second-hand clothing markets across Nairobi, Kenya.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
The Exchange
Gaining Ground installed at Haworth Art Gallery during BTB23

Gaining Ground

Gaining Ground drew on the British Council’s Crafting Futures programme with work by artisans and researchers from countries across the globe, including Bangladesh, the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Argentina, Nicaragua, Guyana, Brazil and Indonesia – territories where colonialism and extractive capitalist processes have disrupted craft knowledge being passed on to future generations.

29/09/2023 - 17/12/2023
Haworth Art Gallery
Ofong Ufok installed at The Exchange, Blackburn during BTB23

Victoria Udondian

Ofong Ufok

Ofong Ufok was developed by the artist with immigrant communities in New York, notably Stitch Buffalo, a textile centre located near the artist’s studio, that empowers refugee and immigrant women by giving them opportunities to create handcrafted goods and gain independence.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
The Exchange
End of Empire installed at The Technology Centre in Nelson during BTB23

Eva Sajovic & Nicola Privato

#end_of_empire

#end_of_empire was an interactive, site specific large scale installation of knitted photographs with incorporated touch sensors and an AI generated musical score.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
The Technology Centre
Common Threads installed in Blackburn Cathedral Crypt during BTB23

Common Threads

These panels were embroidered by three groups of women situated in Burnley, Pendle and Karachi, Pakistan introduced by renowned textile artist, Alice Kettle, who has a long-standing relationship with the Ra’ana Liaquat Craftsmen’s Colony (RLCC) in Karachi where local women produce beautiful up-cycled products.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Blackburn Cathedral
Jeremy Hutchison's Effigies exhibition installed at 29 Northgate in Blackburn

Jeremy Hutchison

Effigies

To accompany Jeremy Hutchison’s installation at the British Textile Biennial, these ‘Effigies’ were made in a series of workshops which took place in schools and community centres across Lancashire.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
29 Northgate
Soft Acid installed at Helmshore Mill during BTB23

Tenant of Culture

Soft Acid

Deconstructing and repurposing discarded materials from the fashion industry into new sculptures, garments and anthropomorphic forms, Tenant of Culture uses the materials and language of fashion and clothing to explore the vast and problematic waste accumulated through the industry’s various stages of production, distribution and consumption.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Helmshore Mill
Young people modelling in the 2023 ReFashion Challenge in Burnley Market

Re: Fashion Challenge 2023

The third annual Re: Fashion Challenge was a collaborative project run by Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, UCLan and the British Textile Biennial.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
The Salon Art Gallery
Funufactury installed at Prism Contemporary during BTB23

Ibukun Baldwin

Funufactury

This installation was developed by Ibukun Baldwin in collaboration with workers at the Cookson & Clegg factory in Blackburn, a manufacturer reshaping traditional systems with their innovative production lines.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Prism Contemporary
Indigenitude installed in PR1 Gallery during BTB23

Indigenitude

Curated by Vancci F.C. Wahn

Curated by Vancci F.C. Wahn and featuring 3 textile artists and 4 documentary filmmakers from 3 different Indigenous nations in Taiwan, this exhibition of artworks and film explored Taiwanese indigenous participatory textile practices.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
PR1 Gallery
Litmus installed at Queen Street Mill during BTB23

Litmus

Environmental Legacies of Cotton

LITMUS: Environmental Legacies of Cotton brought together a series of large-scale textile pieces by artist Natalie Linney with interdisciplinary research from the University of Manchester.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Queen Street Mill
Life in Clothes installed in Haworth Art Gallery during BTB23

Mila Burcikova

Life in Clothes

What would fashion look like if it developed alongside natural seasons rather than the market driven seasons of the fashion calendar?

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Haworth Art Gallery
Artist A & Artist B in parachute skirts at the Surplus Badge picnic during BTB23

Artist A & Artist B

The Surplus Badge

The Surplus Badge was developed in three stages: workshops with East Lancashire Guides, Brownies and Rainbows, a participatory picnic filmed on the lawn in front of Towneley Hall and the installation including the film and artworks, exhibited in Towneley’s Family Dining Room for the British Textiles Biennial.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Towneley Hall
Threadbare Narratives installed at Queen Street Mill during BTB23

Madhu

Threadbare Narratives

Threadbare Narratives alluded to the dark histories and myths surrounding cotton and the movement of knowledge, raw materials and people that underpin the history of the Lancashire cotton industry.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Queen Street Mill
The Fashion Revolution exhibition installed at Helmshore Mill during BTB23

Fashion Revolution

How to be a Fashion Revolutionary

Fashion Revolution is the world’s largest fashion activism movement, mobilising citizens, brands and policymakers through research, education and advocacy.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Helmshore Mill
Threads installed at Blackburn Museum during BTB23

Ergon Theatre

Threads

Originally commissioned by The Lowry and created by one of the UKs leading climate theatre companies Ergon Theatre, Threads is a gripping and poetic audio piece that immerses listeners in the fascinating journey of a simple t-shirt, from its creation to delivery. This captivating narrative unfolds through Charley, an everyday online shopper, and her AI shopping assistant, Wilfred.

29/09/2023 - 29/10/2023
Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery