Textiles are the focus of the Social Fabric exhibition exploring labour, capital, international trade and radical politics. In the 19th Century Karl Marx’s account of the cotton industry tracked fifty years of boom and bust its effects on workers.

The history of trade links between Britain and India are explored in contemporary artwork by artists Sudhir Patwardhan and Alice Creischer, alongside  Indian Chintz, original journals from Marx, films, and recordings by mill workers.

Alice Creischer’s installation connects cycles of investment, disinvestment and decline. The craze for Indian Chintz caused protest amongst Spitalfields weavers in 1719 and devastated whole sections of its textile industry. This led to Gandhi’s choice of the spinning wheel as a symbol of decolonisation.

Since the mid-1970s, Sudhir Patwardhan has depicted Mumbai showing the location of the cotton mills that transformed the city’s economy and led to the Indian industrial revolution. He superimposes different urban strata - the defunct factories, new small scale enterprises and high rise luxury apartments, invoking the workers’ struggle to keep the mills going.

Presented by Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) at Rivington Place.

Admission free

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