The Stitch That Bit Back

The Stitch That Bit Back is a textile exhibition for works that refuse to behave. Curated by Katarina Orolinová and Chlöe Savage, this show challenges the assumption that textiles are passive, decorative, or safely domestic. Instead, it presents fibre as a site of tension, rebellion, and transformation—where softness is not weakness and every thread carries intent.

This exhibition invites textiles that speak back: embroidery that interrupts, felt that ferments, quilts that question, lace that lacerates. Artists are encouraged to explore resistance and repair, the subversion of traditional techniques, emotional labour embedded in making, and the uncanny, absurd, or surreal within fibre. Personal and collective narratives that unravel, provoke, or expose are welcome, whether expressed through refined craftsmanship or deliberately raw gesture.

There is no fixed theme—only an invitation to twist, pull, fray, disrupt, and reimagine what textile practice can be. Works may be rooted in heritage or radically futuristic, quietly defiant or boldly confrontational. The Stitch That Bit Back celebrates innovative textile art that doesn’t soothe but stings; not comfort, but confrontation; not softness, but strength with an edge.

Curated by Chlöe Savage and Katarína Orolínová

Chlöe Savage is a multi-award-winning professional hand embroiderer trained at the École Lesage in Paris and the Royal School of Needlework, UK. Her work has featured on international catwalks with couture houses and in prestigious conservation projects.

Chlöe’s detailed embroideries are based on her own experience of Domestic Violence, its depiction in media and art, and its historical and legal contexts. Embedding hidden messages in Morse code and braille, her artwork embodies the insidious and often invisible nature of abuse.

insta @chloesavageartist
facebook.com/chloe.savage1
linkedin.com/in/chloe-savage-25329622
website cranberry-chihuahua-fs7d.squarespace.com

Katarina Orolinová is a Slovak-born textile and fibre artist trained at the Academy of Fine Art and Design in Bratislava. Through her studies and continuing practice she has exhibited internationally, and is currently retraining in couture embroidery in Bristol. Katarina’s work reinterprets embroidery and bobbin lace through contemporary materials, exploring geometric abstraction that shifts perspective and transforms ornament and embroidery into architectural form.

insta @katarina_orolinova_art
facebook.com/KatarinaOrolinovaArt
linkedin.com/in/katarina-orolinova-484a42b4

How to apply

Fringe Arts Bath Festival will take place 22 May to 6 June 2026

Submission deadline: Friday 10th April 2026 at 23h59 GMT

• Media accepted: The exhibition accepts artworks that engage with textiles through their materials, techniques, concepts, or themes, including both classical textile practices and innovative or experimental works that extend the boundaries of the textile medium.

• Free submission. All are welcome to apply, of any age, status, and from anywhere in the world.

• If selected, we ask Artists for a £25 contribution (like crowdfunding) and to give some of their time, as we are all volunteers.
  Please read our FAQs here to find out more.

• See all 17 projects open to submissions on our home page: fringeartsbath.co.uk

To submit your work: please email the curator stitch@fringeartsbath.co.uk including:

• NB: please include the exhibition / project name in the email title.

• max 200 words about your work and how it fits the call-out (written, audio file, video or another way to suit you).

• some images of the work, or links to video / performance work (or existing work if it hasn’t been made yet).

• any relevant links, if you have them (though it’s not a requirement and Curators might not have the capacity to visit them all).

• of course please include any questions you have.

• you might not hear back from Curators until after the deadline, thank you for your patience.