During the 19th century, Manchester – then a hub of cotton production – came to be nicknamed 'Cottonopolis'. In this discussion chaired by Dominique Heyse-Moore, Tate Britain’s senior curator of British contemporary art, the academic Rose Sinclair and artist Michael McMillan explore how the city’s industrial past is wrapped up with the colonial cotton trade, and look at the material practices that have emerged from this history within the Caribbean and its diaspora.
This talk was the first of four talks during the Stories of Cotton symposium: a half-day event on 2 December 2022, supported by the Bagri Foundation – watch all four talks here.
The symposium delved into the themes underpinning the exhibition Cotton: labour, land and body at the Crafts Council Gallery.
Above: Front Room 1976, by Michael McMillan. Photo: Courtesy of Museum of the Home, image credit Em Fitzgerald