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Viewing A rich entangling of textiles and politics at the Barbican

The Wick Culture - Magdalena Abakanowicz, Vêtement Noir (Black Garment), 1968 (c) Harold Strak Courtesy of the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation

Above Magdalena Abakanowicz, Vêtement Noir (Black Garment), 1968 (c) Harold Strak Courtesy of the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation

The Wick Culture - Igshaan Adams, Gebedelswolke, 2021 – 2024

Above Igshaan Adams, Gebedelswolke, 2021 – 2024

The Wick Culture - Louise Bourgeois with her sculpture, THREE HORIZONTALS, in her home on 20th Street in NYC in 1999 Courtesy The Easton Foundation Photo by Elfie Semotan

Above Louise Bourgeois with her sculpture, THREE HORIZONTALS, in her home on 20th Street in NYC in 1999 Courtesy The Easton Foundation Photo by Elfie Semotan

The Wick Culture - Diedrick Brackens, fire makes some dragons, 2020

Above Diedrick Brackens, fire makes some dragons, 2020

The Wick Culture - Judy Chicago, Birth Tear, 1982

Above Judy Chicago, Birth Tear, 1982

The Wick Culture - Feliciano Centurion, Eye with nanduti, c.1994

Above Feliciano Centurion, Eye with nanduti, c.1994

The Wick Culture - Jeffrey Gibson, SPEAK TO ME SO THAT I CAN UNDERSTAND, 2018 (c) Jeffrey Gibson Courtesy of Sunderland-Cohen Collection

Above Jeffrey Gibson, SPEAK TO ME SO THAT I CAN UNDERSTAND, 2018 (c) Jeffrey Gibson Courtesy of Sunderland-Cohen Collection

The Wick Culture - Teresa Margolles, american Juju for the Tapestry of Truth, 2015 (c) Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich Paris

Above Teresa Margolles, american Juju for the Tapestry of Truth, 2015 (c) Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich Paris

The Wick Culture - Yinka Shonibare, Boy on a Globe, 2008

Above Yinka Shonibare, Boy on a Globe, 2008

The Wick Culture - Solange Passoa, 4 Hammocks, 1999-2003

Above Solange Passoa, 4 Hammocks, 1999-2003

Above Magdalena Abakanowicz, Vêtement Noir (Black Garment), 1968 (c) Harold Strak Courtesy of the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation

Above Igshaan Adams, Gebedelswolke, 2021 – 2024

Above Louise Bourgeois with her sculpture, THREE HORIZONTALS, in her home on 20th Street in NYC in 1999 Courtesy The Easton Foundation Photo by Elfie Semotan

Above Diedrick Brackens, fire makes some dragons, 2020

Above Judy Chicago, Birth Tear, 1982

Above Feliciano Centurion, Eye with nanduti, c.1994

Above Jeffrey Gibson, SPEAK TO ME SO THAT I CAN UNDERSTAND, 2018 (c) Jeffrey Gibson Courtesy of Sunderland-Cohen Collection

Above Teresa Margolles, american Juju for the Tapestry of Truth, 2015 (c) Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich Paris

Above Yinka Shonibare, Boy on a Globe, 2008

Above Solange Passoa, 4 Hammocks, 1999-2003

Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art

Barbican Art Gallery, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
13 February – 26 May 2024

Textiles might seem the benign accompaniments to everyday life but every thread carries a complex history, tangled up with issues around labour, gender, value, and legacies of oppression, extraction and trade. The Barbican’s new show Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art attempts to unfurl them, putting the focus on artists from the 1960s to today who have harnessed the subversive potential of textiles to raise questions about power structures and how they are upheld.

If anyone was in doubt about the potency of the medium, this is the show to see. Don’t miss Cecilia Vicuña’s spatial installation ‘Quipu Austral’, which draws on the history of textiles as ancient systems of communication to connect the oppression of pre-colonial cultures to the desecration of nature, or Margarita Cabrera’s green cacti, stitched from US border patrol uniforms by Spanish–speaking immigrants. Many of the big hitters are here – Yinka Shonibare, Sheila Hicks and Magdalena Abakanowicz among them. Step away from this show and you’ll find yourself looking at the stitches of life anew.

Viewing A long overdue retrospective of conceptual art trailblazer Yoko Ono

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono with Glass Hammer 1967 from HALF-A-WIND SHOW, Lisson Gallery, London, 1967. Photo © Clay Perry

Above Yoko Ono with Glass Hammer 1967 from HALF-A-WIND SHOW, Lisson Gallery, London, 1967. Photo © Clay Perry

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, Add Colour (Refugee Boat), 2016, at MAXXI Foundation. Photo © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
Roma, MUSEO DEL MAXXI 18 12 2019
Il Segretario Generale dell'ONU António Guterres visita il museo accompagnato dalla Presidente Giovanna Melandri.
©Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini

Above Yoko Ono, Add Colour (Refugee Boat), 2016, at MAXXI Foundation. Photo © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini Roma, MUSEO DEL MAXXI 18 12 2019 Il Segretario Generale dell’ONU António Guterres visita il museo accompagnato dalla Presidente Giovanna Melandri. ©Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, Cut Piece 1964. Performed by Yoko Ono in ‘New Works by Yoko Ono’, Carnegie Recital Hall, NYC, March 21 1965. Photo © Minoru Niizuma

Above Yoko Ono, Cut Piece 1964. Performed by Yoko Ono in ‘New Works by Yoko Ono’, Carnegie Recital Hall, NYC, March 21 1965. Photo © Minoru Niizuma

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, Film No. 4 (Bottoms) 1966. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, Film No. 4 (Bottoms) 1966. Courtesy the artist

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, FLY 1970-71. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, FLY 1970-71. Courtesy the artist

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, Freedom 1970. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, Freedom 1970. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono with Glass Hammer 1967 from HALF-A-WIND SHOW, Lisson Gallery, London, 1967. Photo © Clay Perry

Above Yoko Ono, Cut Piece 1964. Performed by Yoko Ono in ‘New Works by Yoko Ono’, Carnegie Recital Hall, NYC, March 21 1965. Photo © Minoru Niizuma

Above Yoko Ono, Film No. 4 (Bottoms) 1966. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, FLY 1970-71. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, Freedom 1970. Courtesy the artist

Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind

Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
15 February – 1 September 2024

John Lennon once quipped that his wife Yoko Ono was “the world’s most famous unknown artist”. Tate Modern’s long overdue retrospective of her work rights this wrong. Born in Tokyo nearly 91 years ago, Ono was a pioneer of early conceptual and participatory art, film and performance, as well as being a musician and a campaigner for world peace. She invited gallery goers to cut her clothes off for “Cut Piece” in 1964 a decade before Marina Abramovic asked visitors to use scissors, wire and a gun “on me as desired” in “Rhythm O”.

That work and other seminal pieces, such as the once banned “Film No.4 (Bottoms)” from 1966-7 – starring a parade of bare buttocks – are explored in the show, which charts the development of her practice over the decades. Her “Refugee Boat”, which visitors are encouraged to cover with messages, from 1960 couldn’t feel more current. Tate Modern’s retrospective reveals that Ono has always been an artist ahead of her time.

Viewing: Join AI pioneer Refik Anadol’s digital voyage beneath the sea

The Wick Culture - Refik Anadol, Artificial Realities: Coral, 2023. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studios

Above Refik Anadol, Artificial Realities: Coral, 2023. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studios

The Wick Culture - Refik Anadol by Efsun Erkilic

Above Refik Anadol by Efsun Erkilic

Above Refik Anadol, Artificial Realities: Coral, 2023. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studios

Above Refik Anadol by Efsun Erkilic

Above Refik Anadol, Artificial Realities: Coral, 2023. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studios

Refik Anadol – Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive

Serpentine North, W Carriage Dr, London W2 2AR
16 February – 19 April 2024

Visitors to Refik Anadol’s new London exhibition Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive will find themselves plunged into an underwater landscape and immersed in a forest inside the Serpentine North. The Turkish artist, technologist and AI pioneer trained a unique AI model with approximately five billion images of corals openly accessible online to create his new sound and video experience “Artificial Realities: Coral” (2023). The AI generates abstracted coral images to construct new visuals and colour combinations based on the datasets, transporting viewers to the sea’s watery depths.

Anadol’s Serpentine solo also includes the first UK showing of “Living Archive: Nature,” first exhibited at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, turning part of the gallery into the AI model’s interpretation of a rainforest, complete with data of flora, fungi and fauna from 16 rainforest sites around the world. Through these installations, Anadol explores the ways in which technology dominates our daily lives, transforming the ways we perceive and experience time and space. Prepare to be mesmerised.