Innovative Threads II returns to RK Contemporary, revisiting an exhibition first established by Margie Garratt in 1996 to champion fibre as a serious contemporary art medium. Nearly three decades later, the premise feels as relevant as ever, with eight South African artists working across weaving, felt, stitching, patchwork and natural fibres.

Rather than treating textiles as a fixed tradition, the exhibition considers what the medium can become in the hands of contemporary artists. Nina Kruger’s intricate fibre constructions engage with language and transformation, while Leila Walter cuts, rearranges and reconstructs existing textiles. Katja Abbott works with felt as a sculptural material, Leah Johnson draws on architecture and landscape, and Dineo Ponde Mafora brings thread into conversation with ink.

They are joined by Willemien de Villiers, Virginia MacKenny & Margaret Courtney-Clarke, and Berdine van der Mescht, whose varied approaches further underline the breadth of fibre practice today.

Originally founded at a time when textile-based work occupied a more peripheral position within the contemporary art world, Innovative Threads was ahead of its time. Its revival by RK Contemporary curator Astrid McLeod connects that earlier history with a generation of artists who are treating fibre not simply as a craft tradition, but as a flexible and conceptually rich artistic language.

Innovative Threads II is less about defining what fibre art is than showing where it can go.