ABSTRACT
The writings of Linda Nochlin and Norma Broude introduced me to the femmages of the American feminist artist Miriam Schapiro, whose strategy to create a deliberate continuity between her own work her femmages and women's traditional arts in quilting and sewing, gave permission for the dismantling of the binary opposition between textiles, decoration and the fine art hegemony of abstract painting. Lippards metaphor for the impact of feminism on contemporary art practice, with its strong textile references to weaving and fabric, underscores a particular relationship between female experience, textiles and feminism. As represented by Christine, Irene and Heidemarie Hohenbuchler, textiles became a guiding metaphor to their ideas and working practices. Mobile exhibitions of women's textile work in London were lent by the Inner London Education Authority, at the same time as Dutch and Indian self-help groups illustrated the issues of women homeworkers in relation to the global textile industries.
