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Biography / Artistic Profile

Weaver: Artisan, Designer, Researcher, Curator, Consultant and Educator.

Initially trained in the UK and later in Japan, work has included a diversity of projects with leading practitioners, industrial partners, traditional craft weavers and museums, contributing to commercial collections, developmental projects, and publishing through exhibitions, conferences, and peer-reviewed journals worldwide.

Exercising a broad, systematic approach, studio practice involves diverse textile applications, informed and underpinned by a range of interests and interconnected research, which often explore the tension grounds between analogue and digital, and craft and industry, exercising a keen focus on materials, and acknowledgment of tradition.

Chief interests are in materials, and work isn't immediately concerned with pattern or colour, but explores the regularly unseen values and potentials of structural and spatial conditions, and finish applications, to exploit or subvert inherent characteristics of materials employed.

Recent work has addressed broad concerns around sustainability, recognizing material provenance and inherent worth, and foregrounding forgotten understandings of textile and making, particularly in the domestic context. 

Research

Keywords: Textiles; Craft; Art; Design; Industry; Materials; Sustainability; Culture; Heritage; Anthropology; Aesthetics; Hybridity; Authenticity; Phenomenology; Hermeneutics; Tradition; Norway; Scandinavia; East:West; Japan

Research interests are interconnected and to date have included: investigation of cross-situational practice of studio and industry; inherited knowledge systems in crafts; and material culture and design in historical textiles.

In particular, nearly 30 years experience working with Japan brings an extensive knowledge of local crafts and industry, and an internationally recognised expertise on Japanese textile culture.

(Under [Beyond Heritage: Material Making Meaning]) Current research is investigating histories of the production and trading of cloth and dyestuffs across geographies, in relation to specific cultural identities; as well as plant-fibre material cultures in the Scandinavian landscape.

Research: Dissemination Activity 

(Selected) Conference/Symposium/Seminar papers (presented) 

• Plant-fibre Textile Cultures: Towards a Sustainable Fibre Future: Agnes Geijers symposium, Stockholm, Sweden 25 October 2024
• Elemental Figuration: Of Universality and Distinction: Pattern Language symposium, Balestrand, Norway 06 September 2024
• Marginal Matters: A Story of Anglo-Norwegian Textile and Dress: Voices Gloucester, Thread Sessions, Gloucester, UK, 30 September 2023
• Patterns of Origin – Coded cultures of Anglo-Norwegian cloth trade and dress, ETN Conference 2023: Codes - stories in textiles, Łódź, Poland 02-04 March 2023
• A Private Wardrobe: Fashionable cloth and culture in mid-19th century Japan, Euroweb: Clothing Identities Conference 4-6 March 2022
• Textiles: Past Traditions, Present Trends, Future Forecasts: Textile for Future Conference (Online), Kaunas, Lithuania, 22-23 October 2020
• Common Grounds: exploring historical textile archives (an Anglo-Japanese study): Talking Textiles Conference: The Archaeology of Textiles (Online), New York, USA, 30 September 2020
• In search of the timeless: Exploring textile archives for [Plain Stripe Check]:  Wolkskundertag, Haslach, Austria, 15 June 2013
• Inherited expertise: [Re]valuing traditional Japanese textile practices for the modern world: Shifting Cultures Of Expertise, Grays School of Art, Robert Gordon University, 13 June 2012 
• Modern Traditional Textiles: Trans/National Clothing: Production and Consumption, Bath Spa University, September 2011
• Past Present and Future Craft Practice Commission: Future Craft exposition, University of Dundee, 25 March 2010
• Plain, Stripe, Check: Sashiko - Symposium, Collins Gallery, Glasgow, 27 February 2010 
• Cultural Soujourning: How global exchanges change cultural and personal identities, Hub National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford, 1 Feb 2010 
• Scarlet: Six Guilds Day Conference, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, 24 October 2009 
• Textiles for Boutique Clothing: Inspired Design: Jacquard and Entrepreneurial Textiles, Hendersonville, USA, January 2009
• Craft-based design: Crafticulation and Education, University of Helsinki, Finland, September 2008
• Craft:Industry Interface - Hand, Heart and Machine: Neocraft: Modernity and the Crafts, NSCAD, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, November 2007 

Major Project Funding

• 2022: Norwegian Artistic Research Programme (HKDIR / PKU): nok.3,000,000 [Beyond Heritage: Material Making Meaning] - Principal Investigator
• 2022: EEA Norway Lichtenstein Grant: nok.700,000 [Interweaving Structures: Fabric as Material, Method and Message] - Co-Investigator 

(Selected) Arts Grants / Awards / Prizes

• 2025 First Prize: John Ruskin Prize
• 2008 / 2018 Theo Moorman Charitable Trust for Weavers: Grant
• 2009 / 2006 The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation: Small Grant
• 2008-9, University of Dundee, Past, Present and Future Craft Practice: Craft Research Commission
• 2006, 2 X 'Superior Works' awards, Japan Folk Craft Museum Craft Awards 2006, Tokyo 

 

Committees (Norway) 

• (External) Competence Committee Member, Promotion to Professor, Lisbeth Funck, AHO January-February 2024
• (External) Chair, PhD Appraisal: Ida Falk Øien - Transactional Aesthetics - and so can you - KHiO - December 2021 - June 2022 

External Examinership / Sensor (UK HEI Sector) 

• 2022 - 2025 Textiles Design with Business Studies BA(Hons), University of Brighton, UK
• 2016~2020 BA/BSc(Hons) Textile Practice (Textile Design) (Textiles Crafts and Art) (Surface Design), University of Huddersfield, UK 

Other Expertise / Sector Leadership Roles 

• Juror, 7th Riga International Triennial of Textile and Fibre Art, 2023
• Juror, 8th European Quilt Triennale, 2021
• Co-Curator and Convenor: (Re)fashioning the future, Textile Industry Museum, Salhus, Norway 2022 / 2023 / 2024

Faculty of Art, Music and Design: Department of Contemporary Art

(Textiles) Subject Modules:

MEME101 Introduksjon i tekstil: vev (Norwegian info) Module Teacher (Autumn2024)

 (Norwegian info) / Materialised Knowledge - Module Leader (Autumn2024)

PRO213 / PRO313 Im/material Knowledge - Module Leader (Spring2025)

Previously:

Art Modules:

- Artistic Practice (Collaborative Practices) - Module Leader

(Textiles) Subject Modules:

/ Exhibition Making - Module Leader

 

Lecture

Other presentation

Exhibition production

Visual arts

Academic book chapter

Conference lecture

Academic article

Conference Papers (proceedings) 

• Parry-Williams, T (2020) Textiles: Traditions, Trends, and Forecasts, Textile for Future, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Kaunas, ISBN: 9786094473494 p.96-109
• Parry-Williams, T (2014) Made-by-hand: [Re]valuing traditional (Japanese) textile practices for contemporary design In: Transition: Re-Thinking Textiles & Surfaces, Huddersfield University, ISBN: 9781862181274
• Parry-Williams, T (2007) Craft:Industry Interface - A Dialogue Between Hand, Heart and Machine (An Anglo-Japanese Collaboration) In: New Craft - Future Voices' Conference Proceedings, ISBN 1899837558, University of Dundee, July 2007, p.73-85.  

Journal Articles (peer reviewed) 

• Cabrera, Coman, Kulpa & Parry-Williams. (2024) Searching for the Exotic - Textiles, Orientalism and Identities. In: Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia. Anthology of COST Action “CA 19131 – EuroWeb”. Droß-Krüpe. K, Quillien. L, Sarri. K, Eds. Zea Books, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2024. DOI: 10.32873/unl.dc.zea.1813
• Parry-Williams, T. (2015) Made-by-hand: [re]valuing traditional (Japanese) textile practices for contemporary design. Craft Research, 6 (2). pp.165-186. ISSN 2040-4689. 

Journal Articles (commissioned) 

• Parry-Williams, T. (2024) The Beautiful Everyday - Mingei: An Art without Heroes. Selvedge, (117) pp.64-67. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T. (2022) Extra-ordinary Stuff: Alison Morton’s Lasting Legacy. Selvedge, (107) pp.72-74. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T. (2020) Kristina Daukintyte & Karina Nøkleby Presttun: New collaborative works (presented in GRIT)
• Parry-Williams, T. (2019) Moving Forward, Crafts Study Centre, Farnham
• Parry-Williams, T (2016) Fuji-Yoshida: weaving town. Selvedge, (70). pp.56-59. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T  (2016) Bashofu: the traditional banana-fibre textile culture of Okinawa. Selvedge, (70). pp.60-63. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T (2016) Contemplating cloth: the weaving of Jun Tomita. Selvedge, (70). pp.64-66. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T (2015) Material matters: a quiet philosophy. Jamini, 2 (1). pp.124-133. ISSN 1728-5747.
• Parry-Williams, T (2015) Women's work? Thoughts on men and weaving / Arbeit der Frauen? Gedanken zu Männern und Weben. Textilforum, 2. pp.12-13. ISSN 1431-3510
• Parry-Williams, T (2015) HaaT trick. Selvedge, (65). pp.15-21. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T (2014) A martial art - indigo-dyed textiles from Saitama, Japan. Selvedge, (58). pp.51-53. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T (2007) Treading Softly. Selvedge, (16). pp.64-69. ISSN 1742-254X 

Exhibition/Book Reviews (commissioned) 

• Parry-Williams, T (2016) Pauline Burbidge: Quiltscapes & Quiltlines. Selvedge, (71). pp.92-93. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T (2016) Kimono Meisen. Selvedge, (70). p. 85. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T (2015) W is for Wallpaper. Selvedge, (67). pp.92-93. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T (2012) Japanese style: sustaining design, Reiko Sudo. Selvedge, (47). p.91. ISSN 1742-254X
• Parry-Williams, T (2011) Anni Albers: design pioneer / Inspired by the legacy of Anni Albers. Selvedge, (39). pp.88-89. ISSN 1742-254X. 

Catalogue Essays  

• Parry-Williams, T. (2022) Alison Morton: Lasting Legacy in: ‘Alison Morton: Weaver’, The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers and Ruthin Craft Centre, pp.6-9. ISBN 9781911664123
• Parry-Williams, T., (2004) Working with genius: Seeing beyond sensei in: 'Through the Surface', The Surrey Institute of Art and Design, pp.47-8. ISBN 0954628527 

(Selected) Exhibitions

Solo 

2023-2024, Dinner Service, KRAFT, Bergen, Norway 

2011, Towel, Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth, UK 

2009, Vocation, Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth, UK 

Joint 

2016, Beautility, Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen, Cheltenham, UK 

2007-2013, Plain, Stripe, Check (tour): Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Japan (2007); Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, UK (2010); Museum in the Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK (2011);Textile Kultur Haslach, Austria (2013)

2010, Clothing - Fabric of the East, New Brewery Arts, Cirencester, UK

2003, Sozai:Materials, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London, UK 

Group 

2024, Spotlight On 4: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collection of Chippenham Museum, UK

2023, Curated Kitchen, Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway

2023, Plant Communitas:Linum, RSpace Gallery, Lisburn, Northern Ireland 

2023, Plant Communitas, Sidney Nolan Trust, England 

2023, 90th Anniversary Exhibition of the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen 1933-2023, Museum in the Park, Stroud; and Court Barn, Chipping Campden, England

2022, Plant Communitas, Museum in the Park, Stroud, England 

2018, Lost in Linen, Linen Biennale, Lisburn, Northern Ireland 

2015, Farnham Textiles 1949-2015: Celebrating sixty-six years, Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, UK 

2013, From William Morris to today: the textiles of the Cotswolds, Gordon Russell Design Museum, Broadway, UK 

2013, Making Connections, Crafts Study Centre, The University Museum of Modern Crafts, Farnham, UK 

2011-2012, Bite-sized: Miniature Textiles from Japan and the UK, International tour: Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London; GalleryGallery, Kyoto, Japan; Nagoya UAS, Japan 

2010-2011, All Tied Up, UK tour: Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh; Mission Gallery, Swansea; Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire, UK 

2010-2011, 'Warp+Weft: From Hand Loom to Production', National Wool Museum, Carmarthenshire / Smiths Row, Bury St.Edmunds, UK 

2010-2011, Future Craft, International tour: Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada; Matthew Gallery, University of Dundee, UK 

2010, Knowledge Through Making, Dundee Contemporary Arts:VRC, Dundee, UK 

2008-2009 Inspired Design: Jacquard & Entrepreneurial Textiles. The Centre for Craft Creativity & Design, Hendersonville (and NC State tour) USA 

2008, Textile in progress, Amities Tissèes, Paris, France 

2007, Future voices: Celebrating diversity, DJCAD, University of Dundee, UK 

2007, 'Fashion collection collaboration' (fabrics) with Aenne Cordsen; and Rubeksen Yamanaka, Livingstone Studio, London, UK 

2006, Nihon Mingeikan Ten (Japan Folk Crafts Museum Craft Awards), Tokyo, Japan 

2004-2005, Through the surface: Collaborating textile artists from Britain and Japan. International tour: SIAD Farnham/Hove MoA; Sainsbury Centre Norwich; Bankfield Museum/Piece Hall Halifax; Nottingham Castle Gallery; Kyoto MOMA, Japan 

2004, 'Workshop and Exhibition: Nepalese Nettle-Fibre Sustainable Income Development Project', Ambassador Hotel, Kathmandu, Nepal 

Beyond Heritage: Material Making Meaning | NARP 2022-2025

(Under development)

(Under Development)

[Beyond Heritage: Material Making Meaning] is a collaborative research project between, Tim Parry-Williams, Professor of Art: Textiles, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (KMD), University of Bergen; and Franz Petter Schmidt, Professor in Textiles, Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO). 

Emerging from the (shared) field of woven textiles, the project explores ideas of craft and production, material heritage and futures, and the reading and interpretation of related (textile) histories, with a view to establishing new understandings and potentials in national or regional textile practice.  

It investigates the topics of weaving as metaphor; knowledge or cultural heritage in practice; reciprocity, ecology, and sustainability; cultural exchange and identity; and ideas of social fabric. These are addressed primarily in the context of Norway and the wider Nordic-region, but with reference to connected geographies, and emerging deglobalization. 

Through a portfolio of interconnected work packages 'Weaving:Making'; 'Weaving: Materials'; and 'Weaving:Reading', the project will deliver a range of research outputs including artworks, exhibitions, seminars, pedagogic material, practice models and policy, and publications. 

The collaboration will run in two parts: a KMD-led Phase1 (3 years), followed by a KHiO-led Phase2 (3 years). A 2021 application to NARP is for the funding and activation of Phase1. 

KEYWORDS: Materials, Identity, Heritage, Craft, Weaving, Knowledge, Textiles, Ecology, History, Anthropology 

Recent Output:

Symposium Paper: Elemental Figuration: Of Universality and Distinction

, Balestrand, Norway 06 September 2024

Conference Paper: []

Codes - Stories in Textiles, European Textile Network, Lodz, Poland - 02-04March 2023

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| EEA Norway Lichtenstein 2022-2024

The Interweaving Structures project : fabric as a material, method, carrier is carried out by the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, the Faculty of Fine Arts, Music and Design of the University of Bergen in Norway and the Doctoral School of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in the period 01/03/2022 - 29/02/2024. The task was co-financed from the "Culture" program, Action 2 "Improving access to culture and art" under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2014-2021.

The goals of the project include: development of transnational integration and cooperation of cultural and scientific communities from Poland and Norway; incorporating the creative traditions of the Saami people from the north of Norway and the disappearing weaving techniques of the Podlasie region into the broader current of culture and art; popularizing knowledge about Polish and Norwegian artistic textiles and their cultural background; formulating new research perspectives on the art of textiles; exchange of experiences and good practices between project organisers; raising competences and preparing students of master's, doctoral and curatorial studies for professional work; supporting artists by organizing artistic residencies.

The project assumes the implementation of a series of online seminars and research and art residencies in Łódź, Podlasie, Bergen and Kautokeino in the north of Norway for students of art universities from both countries. The result of participation in the above activities will be an exhibition prepared by the participants of the project, under the guidance of curators from partner organizations, which will be presented to the public in Łódź and Bergen in 2023.

Important components of the project will also include: a scientific symposium during the 17th International Triennial of Textiles at the CMWŁ, an international exhibition at the CMWŁ with the participation of recognized artists of textile art and curators from Poland and Norway, as well as a scientific publication and communication with recipients via a website and online tools.