Intersecting Threads

Examining the significance of cloth in the work of contemporary feminist artists, Intersecting Threads: Art, Cloth and Intersectional Feminism draws on Black feminist theories, queer theories, and anti-colonial theories such as opacity, as well as scholarship on the nonhuman turn in the humanities.

In a world where intersectional feminist approaches are increasingly important, this book adds to the growing literature on contemporary feminist art, making a significant contribution to discussions on queer, feminist and anti-racist artists and their work.

Through a close reading of both the art and writing of feminist artists including Faith Ringgold, Louise Bourgeois, Elisabeth Perrault, Tau Lewis, and Candice Lin, Julia Skelly shows how their work may be productively analysed through Black feminist scholar and activist Kimberlé W. Crenshaw’s theoretical framework of intersectional feminism. Writing as a Black feminist legal scholar, Crenshaw’s framework is dedicated to illuminating the different kinds of violence that women of colour experience, but it has become an indispensable analytic tool for feminist art historians concerned not only with gender, but also with race, class, and sexuality.

Illustrated with over thirty-five images, Intersecting Threads demonstrates the overlaps amongst the political concerns of 20th- and 21st-century feminist artists and reveals the power of textiles in the context of ongoing racism and misogyny.

Author Biography

Julia Skelly is a specialist in nineteenth-century British art and visual culture, contemporary feminist art, textiles, excess, decadence, and addiction. Her publications include Radical Decadence: Excess in Contemporary Feminist Textiles and Craft (Bloomsbury, 2017), and Skin Crafts: Affect, Violence and Materiality in Global Contemporary Art (Bloomsbury, 2022). She taches in the Department of Art History at Concordia University, Canada.