How do artists use fabric to challenge linear time narratives?

Artists have long employed fabric as a medium to subvert traditional linear time narratives, weaving together past, present, and future into tactile, multidimensional works. By manipulating textiles—through layering, fraying, or repurposing vintage materials—they create visual metaphors for non-linear memory and collective history. Some stitch fragmented timelines into quilts, while others drape installations that decay over exhibitions, embodying impermanence. Contemporary creators like El Anatsui assemble bottle caps into shimmering tapestries that reflect colonial trade cycles, while Sheila Hicks' fiber sculptures compress geological epochs into vibrant forms. These works invite viewers to experience time as fluid, challenging Western notions of progress with folds, knots, and unfinished edges that suggest simultaneous existence of multiple temporalities. Textile art thus becomes a loom for reimagining chronology itself.