Australian-run gallery outpost Michael Reid Berlin will present a dual focus on textiles in contemporary art opening dual solo presentations by Australian artists Paul Yore and Trevor Smith this Friday the 22nd of November.

Yore's sensational and highly provocative hand-sewn textile forms, continue the historical deployment of domestic hand-craft with subversive intent. Mirroring the frenzied, image-saturated media context of the digital age, he utilises found images and text from clothing, bedding, tea towels and other recycled goods to produce depositories of high and low cultural forms. This compressed, sequin-clad, queer alternate reality will be presented in a major 4-meter tapestry "Let Us Not Die From Habit". Alongside this, Smith's exhibition "Behind the Curtains (Hinter den Vorhängen)" will feature an assortment of captivating crocheted sculptures evoking domestic DDR nostalgia aimed at celebrating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall “30 Jahre Mauerfall”.

Paul Yore, Let Us Not Die From Habit, 2018 
Mixed media appliquéd textile comprising recycled fabric, found objects, cotton thread, wool, acrylic, paint, sequins, buttons, beads, 405 x 230cm

This piece takes issue with religion and habits (in both senses of the word). As in other works, pictures and words play off each other at break-neck speed. There are words made up of different kinds of letters, like the cut-out letters of blackmailers; other words are dissected, just like the ‘pictures’ are variously sourced from handicrafts and photographs. The central figure, mostly painted, wears a modest square over his genitals this time, but words are being ejaculated all over the place.

Michael Reid Berlin, Ackerstraße 163, 10115 Berlin