Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

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Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Amber Butchart

22 episodes

1 month ago

Welcome back to the Cloth Cultures podcast series. For season 4, Amber Butchart speaks to some of the artists, curators and contributors who are exhibiting at the British Textile Biennial throughout October this year, 2025. Tune in to hear discussions on invention and innovation in textile production, from indigenous knowledge to space-age technology, from the earliest form of shelter, the tent, to space suits, and from natural dyes to the first polymers.

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Welcome back to the Cloth Cultures podcast series. For season 4, Amber Butchart speaks to some of the artists, curators and contributors who are exhibiting at the British Textile Biennial throughout October this year, 2025. Tune in to hear discussions on invention and innovation in textile production, from indigenous knowledge to space-age technology, from the earliest form of shelter, the tent, to space suits, and from natural dyes to the first polymers.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...

Episodes (20/22)

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Aitor Throup and Andrew Groves

For our season finale, Amber is in conversation with multi-disciplinary artist and designer Aitor Throup, and Andrew Groves, Professor of Fashion Design at the University of Westminster and founder of the Westminster Menswear Archive. The discussion is a deep dive into the conceptual framework behind Aitor’s practice, considering the avant garde at the intersections of football and fashion, the paradoxes at the heart of terrace style, and how racial discrimination is confronted in his designs. It is linked to Aitor’s retrospective in Burnley for the British Textile Biennial this year, titled From the Moor.

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1 month ago

1 hour 20 minutes 37 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Max Leonard and Henry Iddon

Max Leonard and Henry Iddon are in conversation with Amber Butchart about their book, Mountain Style: British Outdoor Clothing 1953 – 2000, and related exhibition at the British Textile Biennial this year. Listen in for discussions on the evolution of outdoor clothing from mountain summit to street, moving from Everest in 1953 to football terraces and rave subcultures, as well as the factors that made this possible, from indigenous Inuit knowledge to the Right to Roam movement and the importance of Lancashire mills.

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1 month ago

1 hour 4 minutes 20 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Dhara Mehrotra and Ninon Ardisson

Amber Butchart talks to artists Dhara Mehrotra and Ninon Ardisson who are both creating work for the British Textile Biennial this year. Tune in to hear them discuss everything from mycelium to slime mould and our potential to learn from these networks, as well as their radical potential for textile futures, biomimicry in design, and the false dichotomy between art and science.

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1 month ago

41 minutes 25 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Claire Wellesley-Smith and Amber Butchart

Amber Butchart is in conversation with artist and academic Claire Wellesley-Smith, about their co-curated exhibition The Synthetic Revolution. The show looks at the development of the first polyester fibre made from crude oil by-products in Accrington, which was later branded with the name Terylene. They discuss how this local story became not only global but intergalactic in the post-war decades of the 1950s and 60s.

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1 month ago

46 minutes 30 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Tania Candiani and Porfirio Gutiérrez

Amber Butchart talks to artists Tania Candiani and Porfirio Gutiérrez about their work centred on cochineal. The cactus-dwelling cochineal insect can be used to produce a bright red pigment, a sacred indigenous colour which was exploited by colonial powers following the Spanish conquest of the area today known as Mexico. This colour transformed European art, but at a great cost. They discuss land, labour and ancestral knowledge through this lens, as well as the conceptual, colonial and economic context and value of art vs craft.

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1 month ago

58 minutes 28 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Sarah Rosalena and Crystal Bennes

Amber Butchart is joined by artists Sarah Rosalena and Crystal Bennes about their work which inspired by residencies at major scientific facilities: Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles County, California, and CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland, the home of the Large Hadron Collider. They discuss the erasure of women and people of colour from conventional scientific histories, as well as the power and precarity of archives, and links between computing and looms.

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1 month ago

54 minutes 12 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Lucy Orta and Jessica Hemmings

Amber Butchart is joined by artist Lucy Orta who has an expansive survey exhibition of her work with her partner Jorge at the Biennial this year, and writer and professor Jessica Hemmings. They discuss everything from texts to textiles, incarceration and craft, and how Lucy’s work highlights humanity’s impact on the planet, including themes such as displacement, climate change, and migration.

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1 month ago

50 minutes 11 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Christine Borland and Eva Sajovic

Amber Butchart talks to artists Christine Borland and Eva Sajovic about everything from feminism to fustian. Both Christine and Eva are exhibiting at the British Textile Biennial in the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, notorious today for the Pendle witch trials in the early 17th century that saw 10 people executed for witchcraft. They explore the status, power and identity of women in early modern europe, and the changes brought about by the interconnectedness of the industrial revolution, capitalism and the colonial project, through to AI and its use in contemporary art.

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2 years ago

58 minutes 12 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Rebecca Chesney and Dr Mila Burcikova

Amber Butchart talks to researcher Dr Mila Burcikova of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion and artist Rebecca Chesney. Tune in for discussions on fashion, agriculture, and regenerative potentials, festival textile waste, and the fashion seasons vs the actual seasons. As well as art and bees, and tending our wardrobes in the same way we would tend our gardens.

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2 years ago

58 minutes 26 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Victoria Udondian and Ibukun Baldwin

Amber Butchart is joined by artists Victoria Udondian and Ibukun Baldwin, both of whom are creating incredible collaborative pieces for the British Textile Biennial this year. Tune in for discussions on migration, clothing and economic empowerment as well as the power of clothing and textiles in storytelling.

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2 years ago

53 minutes 26 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Nick Jordan, Jacob Cartwright, Emily Oldfield and Andrew Hann

Amber Butchart talks to artists Nick Jordan and Jacob Cartwright, poet Emily Oldfield and English Heritage historian Andrew Hann. They discuss Larksong - a collaborative work by Nick and Jacob for this year’s British Textile Biennial which was a joint commission with English Heritage, and takes place at the nonconformist place of worship, Goodshaw Chapel in Rossendale. Tune in to hear about how hand loom weavers built the chapel, the connection between the land, music and poetry, the Larks of Dean, inspiration from the pre-industrial landscape and the history of the space.

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2 years ago

58 minutes 24 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Hendrickje Schimmel, Arianna Tozzi and Ali Browne

Amber Butchart talks to artist Hendrickje Schimmel (Tenant of Culture), and Cottonopolis Collective researchers Arianna Tozzi and Ali Browne. They discuss their work for the British Textile Biennial this year, which includes investigation of pollution and the environmental impact of the textile industries, the problems with unchecked consumer culture, the life cycles of garments, and the intersections of cotton, science and agriculture.

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2 years ago

54 minutes 40 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Uthra Rajgopal, Ligaya Salazar and Vancci Wahn

Amber Butchart is joined by curators Uthra Rajgopal, Ligaya Salazar and Vancci Wahn who are each curating a group show for the British Textile Biennial this year. They discuss the practice of curating textiles, including themes such as indigeneity, craft practices, regenerative knowledge, and sustainability and labour.

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2 years ago

51 minutes 10 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Jeremy Hutchison and Sunny Dolat

Amber Butchart is joined by artists Jeremy Hutchison, and Sunny Dolat of the Nest Collective. They discuss one of the major themes of the British Textile Biennial this year: textile waste imperialism. It’s a deep dive into how the trade in secondhand clothes from the Global North is mapped directly onto previous colonial routes and relationships, reproducing those same inequalities.

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2 years ago

58 minutes 54 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Ep 8: Cotton 2 with Bharti Parmar and Tiwirayi Ndoro

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.

Featuring Bharti Parmar, Artist and Academic and Tiwirayi Ndoro Fashion Photographer and Stylist.

Focussing on four fabrics – silk, linen, wool and cotton - Amber investigates the global strands of local stories that link Lancashire, at the heart of the textile industry in Britain, to areas throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 years ago

26 minutes 36 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Ep 7: Cotton 1 with Gillian Berry and Lubaina Himid

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.

Featuring Gillian Berry, Manager at The Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington and artist and Professor of Contemporary Art, Lubaina Himid.

Focussing on four fabrics – silk, linen, wool and cotton - Amber investigates the global strands of local stories that link Lancashire, at the heart of the textile industry in Britain, to areas throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 years ago

30 minutes 55 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Ep 6: Wool 2 with Sally Tuckett and Teleica Kirkland

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.

Featuring Sally Tuckett, Lecturer in Dress and Textile Histories at University of Glasgow and Teleica Kirkland, Lecturer in Cultural and Historical Studies at London College of Fashion and founder, primary researcher, Founder and Creative Director for the Costume Institute of the African Diaspora.

Focussing on four fabrics – silk, linen, wool and cotton - Amber investigates the global strands of local stories that link Lancashire, at the heart of the textile industry in Britain, to areas throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 years ago

38 minutes 17 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Ep 5: Wool 1 with Esther Rutter and Raise Kabir

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.

The podcast looks at the importance of wool in the the world of textile manufacturing and production. Featuring writer and knitter Esther Rutter and Textile Artist Raisa Kabir. Raisa is also exhibiting at Queen Street Mill throughout the Biennial.

Focussing on four fabrics – silk, linen, wool and cotton - Amber investigates the global strands of local stories that link Lancashire, at the heart of the textile industry in Britain, to areas throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 years ago

34 minutes 42 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Ep 4 : Linen 2 with Alison Toplis and Justine Aldersey-Williams

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.

Featuring Alison Toplis, research fellow at Wolverhampton University and author of The Hidden History of the Smock Frock and Justine Aldersey-Williams from North West England Fibreshed and collaborator on the Homegrown/Homespun project with Patrick Grant.

Focussing on four fabrics – silk, linen, wool and cotton - Amber investigates the global strands of local stories that link Lancashire, at the heart of the textile industry in Britain, to areas throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 years ago

36 minutes 49 seconds

Cloth Cultures with Amber Butchart

Ep 3: Linen 1 with Anna Garnet and Fiona McKelvie

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and associated exhibition, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth, speaking to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history.

Featuring Dr Anna Garnet, Curator for the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology and Fiona McKelvie of McBurney and Black, specialists in Irish Linen.

Focussing on four fabrics – silk, linen, wool and cotton - Amber investigates the global strands of local stories that link Lancashire, at the heart of the textile industry in Britain, to areas throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 years ago

39 minutes 31 seconds