Often incorporated as part of a wider artistic practice, the everyday, intimate and accessible quality of textiles is used to create works that are theatrical, bold, unsettling and humorous.

The artists in this exhibition share a deep awareness of the cultural significance of textiles, alongside a desire to test their potential as a medium for contemporary art. The familiar, material stuff of everyday life is transformed into the unexpected – the ordinary made extraordinary – to explore ideas of the body, identity, gender, race, heritage, myth and folklore.

Material Worlds has been curated by Caroline Achaintre. A Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition from the Southbank Centre, London. Supported by Leonard Design.

Top picture: Song Dynasty, 2021 by Rae-Yen Song © the artist. Photo: Luke Pickering