Each year we showcase emerging talent, looking for clues as to what lies ahead and how these emerging creatives will shape the discipline in the coming years. There is no doubt that events over the last year have shifted our perspectives and we all recognise that we need to re-evaluate our principles and methods. To do this we need to develop new thinking and embrace these challenges as opportunities.

The 2021 Textiles cohort has identified an overarching theme - a common thread - that links their practices under one dynamic platform: Re-. Textiles is a versatile discipline that encompasses many ideas and ideals. One word, however, does resonate with all students. Relationship. Relationships with materials, with objects, with our environment/s, with others and with ourselves.

This body of work explores these notions from various perspectives, with each student adopting the prefix re- and completing the word from a unique perspective with relation to their practice. These projects have adopted an enhanced form of reflection – with students taking a holistic approach to textiles making and thinking, re-calibrating the Textiles field and its promise.

Re is the way in which two or more people or things are connected. Re is to change something into an altered form, figure, shape, or layout. Re is to come or go back to a place or person. Re is to grow after loss or damage.

Re is to consider something again, especially in order to change it.

Find out more about Re- as a Collaboration here.

- Anne Toomey, Head of Programme

RCA 2021 Textiles Events

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RCA Textiles 2021 Graduates

Re-// Textiles RCA2021 Film