Cotton: labour, land and body

This exhibition has now ended.

Through textiles, films and works on paper, this free to attend exhibition explored how one of the world's most ubiquitous materials has shaped the relationship between Britain and South Asia.

– This exhibition has ended but you can watch the four talks from our symposium, Stories of Cotton, here

For thousands of years, cotton has been skilfully cultivated from seed to yarn and crafted into garments to support a growing expansion of trade and consumption. Today, cotton remains one of the most profitable crops in the world, yet the stories and histories that it holds are rarely told.

In this exhibition, visitors were taken on an expedition across time, geographies, cultures and traditions, uncovering multi-generational connections between Britain and South Asia through the cotton industry in Lancashire. Featuring work by artists Raisa Kabir, Brigid McLeer, Bharti Parmar and Reetu Sattar commissioned by the British Textile Biennial 2021, it captures the impact of cotton production on labour, land and the body. 

Journey through punched khadi paper (a paper made from 100% cotton rag) – echoing Gandhi’s campaign to end British rule – to coded Bengali script and job titles of production-line workers captured in handwoven and jacquard textiles.

Cotton: labour, land and body is curated by Uthra Rajgopal.

Supported by the Bagri Foundation. In partnership with The Super Slow Way, the British Textile Biennial and the National Festival of Making.

Curated by Uthra Rajgopal

Uthra Rajgopal is an Independent Curator with a specialist interest in South Asian textiles. In 2019 Uthra won the Art Fund New Collecting Award to build a collection of contemporary textile artworks for the Whitworth, specifically artworks made by women artists working in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh and the UK diaspora. Uthra has curated exhibitions at Bikaner House, Delhi and Banu Rangoonwala Sculpture Terrace at the South Asia Gallery, Manchester Museum (due to open in in 2023). Uthra is currently the first Writer in Residence at the Art House in Wakefield in collaboration with Corridor 8, Permindar Kaur and Annalisa Toccara and is an Associate Curator at the British Textile Biennial 2023.

About Bagri Foundation

The Bagri Foundation is a UK registered charity whose main mission is to realise unique, unexpected ideas from and on Asia, weaving traditional culture with contemporary thinking. The Foundation provides support towards artistic and educational projects and establishes collaborative partnerships with institutions that range in scale—from small cultural organisations that share our ethos and mission to large national and international partners. The Foundation’s supported projects include film, visual arts, music, literature, courses and lectures, and each of them aims at giving artists and experts from across Asia and the diaspora, or those inspired by the continent, wider visibility on the global stage.

About Super Slow Way

Hosted by the Canal & River Trust, The Super Slow Way is a cultural development programme in Pennine Lancashire that uses the Leeds & Liverpool Canal as a vehicle for bringing people together on a waterway that everyone shares. Their work is shaped by and delivered with local residents from Blackburn to Pendle, working alongside artists, designers, manufacturers and growers, in fact anyone whose energy and imagination can help build more resilient and sustainable communities.

The National Festival of Making

Resistances by Raisa Kabir is an outcome of the Art in Manufacturing Residency Programme, Curated by The National Festival of Making and co-commissioned by British Textile Biennial.

The National Festival of Making is a unique celebration of UK making, from the kitchen table to the factory floor. Presenting a programme of work that combines Art, Manufacturing, Making and Communities, they commission international and national artists to create world class works, a year round programme and a participatory free family festival for all to enjoy.