The Common Thread: The Warp and Weft of Thinking

From fibers to threads and dyes to fabrics, The Common Thread: The Warp and Weft of Thinking, published to accompany the exhibition at the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt, examines textile techniques and their contexts of meaning. The Museum’s collections from the Americas, Indonesia, Oceania and Africa, illustrations of which are interspersed throughout, serve as a starting point for survey and analysis.
In the course of multiple essays, the volume presents connections between textile skill and the manifestation of basic cognitive abilities. Narrative motifs from various cultures indicate how deeply terms connected with textiles have become established in our use of language. Interdisciplinary perspectives––for instance, from philosophy or contemporary art and music––deepen these themes and offer new, contemporary interpretations.