International Relations and/as thread-work : a dialogue on threads, war, and conflict

Abstract

This intervention reflects on the opportunities for textile art, and its exhibition and making, to inform our study of conflict, violence, and resistance in International Relations. In a dialogue drawing on the Threads, War and Conflict exhibition at the Byre Theatre, St Andrews, this piece grounds our understanding of violence and its resistance through engagement with materials displayed at and promoting the exhibition. Our discussion of the exhibition and its associated events draws on metaphors of thread-work to explore the contributions of textile to international relations and the possibilities that textiles’ material, affective and transgressive politics hold.