Research Area Leader - Fabric Forward, Professor of Textile Art and Director of the Art and Design Research Institute

Professor Karen Fleming leads textile research in Interface, Centre for Art Technologies and Design; having been a lecturer at the University of Ulster since 1989 she became Professor in 2008. She has been instrumental in addressing the development of textile art within fine and applied art contexts and in promoting hybrid outcomes from digital and analogue processes. Fleming graduated with a first class honours degree in Fashion and Textiles (1987), Postgraduate Diploma Art & Design (1988) and a Master of Education (1993) from the University of Ulster. Fleming is a former co-chair of the 62 Group of Textile Artists and a board member of Craft NI. She has juried many national and international exhibitions including the 2006 3rd European Quilt Triennial in Heidelberg and curated ‘Reinventing Linen’ art the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, OBG Belfast and Millennium Court Gallery, Portadown (2007). Ulster’s textile heritage has been a key influence and Fleming’s work references issues in feminism, domestic and textile labour and identity. Her research has developed from a focus upon dimensional pattern and narrative in stitched textile to the questioning of textile formats such as ‘the quilt’, considering the use of material as metaphor and the semiotics of cloth. Fleming’s work has been recognized in international awards including Europäische Quilt-Triennale, The Art of The Stitch and Threadworks, New Zealand. Recent exhibitions include Europäische Quilt-Triennale2003/4, Tokyo International Quilt 2003, 1st Biennial of Textiles OBG 2002, ‘Fabric & Fabrications’ Context Gallery and Ulster Folk & Transport Museum 2002/3, ‘In Context’ The Victoria & Albert Museum 2002. Her recent work has been in crossdisciplinary projects. She is currently funded by the Wellcome Trust to lead a collaborative research into textiles and anatomy bringing together art and allied health professions at the University of Ulster and medical education at Durham University. The project has already generated papers and key note invitations by Fleming and team members at international conferences in Europe and USA. The preliminary collaborative work was been exhibited at Seamless Boston and Wearable Expressions, LA and presented at ‘Antennae’ in the Science Museum, London (2008) and will result in an exhibition in 2010. She will represent Britain in the 2010 Lodz Biennale.