The second edition of the Northern Ireland Linen Biennale’s headline group exhibition, where flax and linen—whether as story, medium, or substrate—serve as the common thread across a range of fine and applied art practices.
Curated by artist and creative producer Meadhbh McIlgorm, the show celebrates the slow, considered, and skilful labour of artist-makers. This year, a symbolic thread of weaving runs through much of the work, highlighting interdependence over fragmentation: as in a weave, no thread stands alone. Instead, something is formed collectively through a series of crossovers and junctions. Weaving echoes life—our common ground, shared heritage, and collective material future are all interwoven with the politics of fibre and fabric.
Join us for the opening on Wednesday 20th August at 6pm for hot drinks or wine.
Exhibition will be on display until 13th September.
Curators Note
Common Threads is the second edition of the Northern Ireland Linen Biennale’s headline group exhibition, where flax and linen - whether as story, medium, or substrate - form the common thread across diverse fine and applied art practices.
The 2025 exhibition honours the slow, considered, and skilful labour of artist-makers. Here, textiles become vessels of memory, place, and process. Drawing colour and material directly from the land, the works pay tribute to our rich textile heritage while reimagining its relevance for the present. Natural dyes evoke the tones of our fields, hedgerows, and even the red-brick terraces of Victorian industry. Handwoven wraps, salvaged frames, upcycled cloth, and revived skills reflect both ecological sensitivity and deep material care.
Threads serve as carriers of personal history, preserving memory, processing chronic pain, and reconnecting to home, both ancestral and present. At the same time, they extend into collective memory through community projects, shared skills, and stories passed hand to hand.
This year, weaving emerges as a recurring undercurrent. It embodies interdependence rather than fragmentation: no thread stands alone. Instead, meaning is formed through crossings and junctions, echoing life. Our shared heritage, common ground, and material futures are interwoven with the politics of fibre and fabric - at once delicate and resilient.
Cloth is universally relatable. Each piece in Common Threads transforms fibres into reflection on what we inherit, what we create, and what we might leave behind.
written by Meadhbh McIlgorm