SOFTY: Textiles from The Dowse Collection

SOFTY brings together artists from The Dowse’s textile collection who use the language of fabric and fibre to unpick ideas of masculinity, labour and identity. Once used to belittle sensitivity, here the term ‘softy’ has been reclaimed to celebrate the generosity and tenderness of these textile practices. Softness isn’t just a material choice, but a strategy used to interrogate assumptions that textiles are for ‘softies.’

The exhibition celebrates makers who tenderly weave stories, histories, memory and identity through textiles. From quiltmakers like Maungarongo Te Kawa (Ngāti Porou) to Malcolm Harrison, their works transform scraps of fabric into reflections on whakapapa, mātauranga Māori, love, heartbreak and personal struggle. Areez Katki and Steven Junil Park draw on craft to connect to their own family histories, creating works that reflect on identity and remembrance, and challenge hierarchies that devalue textile practices.

Turumeke Harrington (Kai Tāhu) and Jakob Rowlinson both use humour to challenge the status quo. Harrington draws on kōwhaiwhai patterns and everyday objects to open a playful dialogue about sexuality, cultural norms and whakapapa, while Rowlinson reimagines medieval tapestries through a queer lens, weaving Disney animals into contemporary fantasy. Daegan Wells offers a quieter reflection on place, industry and the changing fabric of rural life, while Gordon Crook’s collaborations with Lesley Nicholls brought an exuberant new energy to textiles in the 1980s.

These works are only a slice of The Dowse’s expansive collection of textiles, but they each tell their own stories. More importantly, SOFTY is about revealing The Dowse’s own softer side, our steadfast commitment to collecting craft and showing off (just a little).

^{Gordon Crook and Lesley Nicholls, Islands (1984). Wool yarn. Collection of The Dowse Art Museum, purchased 1984.}