Bio

Clio is an artist, academic and researcher in the field of textiles.  She is a Professor in the Department of Fashion and Textiles at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. Clio has a Masters in Fine Art/Tapestry from the Royal College of Art, and a track record of international exhibitions and research projects.  In 2019 she was awarded a PhD for a programme of work titled: Banal and Splendid Form: revaluing textile makers’ social and poetic identity as a strategy for textile manufacturing innovation. Between 2019 and 2022, Clio was Deputy Head of School (Education) at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.

Through her critical and creative engagement in textiles and design, Clio has developed several research themes; the cultural history of textiles and its creative representation through moving images;  scholarly article contributions on interdisciplinary links between textiles and critical theory; EU funded projects on digital preservation of textile company and museum archives. Her most recent outputs addresses the recovery of textile heritage in the context of migration.

After 15 years as a Senior Lecturer in Textiles at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, Clio worked on two EU funded projects. Clio was Research Fellow for PLUSTEX, a 3 year Interreg IV European Union project. Current research investigations, based on an interest in the composition of a "social fabric", explore public policy initiatives for the textile and clothing sector in the UK, to contribute to knowledge about social innovation and sustainable communities. This research is published in Sustainability and the Social Fabric, Bloomsbury.

Below is an excerpt from Sue Prichard’s introduction to her work, written for the Berlin Project-Temporal Relations publication.

Padovani’s [woven and moving images] demonstrate an extraordinary ability to transcend time…[When asked] she describes her desire to discover a new dimension, a new way of thinking about textiles, one which would connect the individual with the collective, the personal with the universal…Padovani chooses her medium with care, keen to exploit its ability to weave her narrative, constructing events and experiences with infinite care and attention to detail. She creates poetic interpretations, using technology as a tool, not to drive the creative process, but to act as the interface between us, her public, and our textile heritage.

Sue Prichard, Curator, Contemporary Textiles, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.