Introduction To 'The Please of Collecting' exhibition

Listen back to acclaimed artist, writer, broadcaster Ferren Gipson, an inspiring evening exploring the radical artistry and enduring legacy of the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers. Drawing on her influential book Women’s Work: From Feminine Arts to Feminist Art (2022); Gipson shares a maker’s perspective on how textiles—once dismissed as mere craft—have become powerful tools of cultural resistance, identity, and expression.

Track Details:  Women’s Work and the Reclamation of Textiles with Artist and Writer, Ferren Gipson. 56 minutes in duration. Recorded at IMMA, Lecture Room on Thurs 4 Sept, 2025

This talk celebrates the remarkable tradition of quilt making passed down through five generations of Black American women in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, whose bold, improvisational works continue to shape contemporary textile practices. Gipson will explore the politics of labour, materiality, and matrilineal knowledge embedded in these quilts, and reflect on the practices of other artists—such as Cecilia Vicuña, amongst other—who use fabric as a language of memory, spirit, and resistance.

Anchored in feminist and intersectional thinking, this talks weaves together art history and personal insight, from a hands-on textiles practice to champion ‘women’s work’ as both deeply political and profoundly creative.

Presented in conjunction with Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibition at IMMA, this IMMA Talks event is for anyone interested in art, activism, and the beauty of working with textiles.

Speaker Details:

Ferren Gipson is an art historian and artist exploring themes of politics, popular culture, and identity in modern and contemporary visual culture. She is the author of Women’s Work and The Ultimate Art Museum, and as a dynamic storyteller, has contributed to the Financial Times and hosted the Art Matters podcast. She has previously taught for the Courtauld Institute and SOAS, delivered numerous talks for institutions including TED and Royal Academy of Art, and was named one of Apollo Magazine’s ’40 under 40 Thinkers’ in crafts. Within her art practice, Ferren explores themes of spirituality, materiality, and matrilineal ties through textiles. She has previously shown her work with Hauser & Wirth, Unit London, and Paul Smith Space.

Topics in her research include exploring intersections between art and popular culture, highlighting the work of women artists, and political themes in modern Chinese art. Within her textile practice, she explores themes of labour, matrilineal connections, materiality, and colour. She holds a Doctorate from SOAS, University of London.

Women’s Work and the Reclamation of Textiles


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