Interesting new exhibition brings together more than 300 tartan objects
Tartan may well be “the most categorised textile on Earth”, said Cal Revely-Calder in The Daily Telegraph. There are more than 11,000 recognised varieties of this grid of “geometric patterns of coloured thread”, each one of them loaded with symbolism. Over the centuries, tartan has been “a source of pride, contempt, sedition, comfort, embarrassment and cool”. To wear it “is to enter a miasma of folklore and social rules”. Yet among the many things that this new exhibition demonstrates is that most of these rules are relatively recent inventions. This show at the V&A in Dundee brings together more than 300 objects to explore tartan’s history and significance, covering everything from Culloden to the Bay City Rollers. In its sweep, it encompasses a “dizzying” but never disorienting mix of art, design and fashion. At its heart, Tartan investigates national pride, “and why we bind ourselves to our history”. And it is “mesmerising”.
