Biographies
Dee Light as she started to call herself in the early nineties, was a gifted embroiderer, performance artist and poet, who studied Textiles at Goldsmiths from 1985 to 1989.
Written by Helen Carr, Emeritus Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and member of the Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre in Textiles Advisory Board, Goldsmiths
Ruby Hodgson is the Curator of the Goldsmiths Textile Collection and the Curatorial Operations Coordinator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her research centres on constructions of class and gender through fashion, and the emotional embodiment of textiles. Her chapter, “Robe à la Grand-Mère: The Reuse of Eighteenth-Century Silks in Romantic-Era Fashion,” appears in Reading the Thread: Cloth and Communication (Bloomsbury Academic). She was a contributor to Silk: Fiber, Fabric, and Fashion (Thames & Hudson).
rubyjhodgson
Marf Summers
Marf Summers (b. 1991, UK) is an artist, architect, and leatherworker, living and working in London. Their work explores themes of trans & dyke identity, domesticity, and class, working in diverse mediums including leather, sandpaper, silicone and hard candy. Marf creates primarily 3 dimensional and object works that turn a subversive and eroticising eye on the mundane through butch-camp sensibilities. Their current body of work ‘Standing Stone Butch’ collides the unknowable landscape of prehistory with 20th century constructs of queer identity, exploring themes of folklore, myth, and petrification. Marf’s work has been exhibited internationally and they are currently a member of the Conditions Studio Programme in Croydon, South London.
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Emily Witham
Emily Witham (b. 1994, Edinburgh) is an artist based in South London. Referencing both archives and personal experience, her work explores the history of dyke subcultures and contemporary lesbian politics. She is particularly interested in the legacy of working-class butch/femme identities and queer community spaces. She has exhibited at Barbican Curve Gallery and Southbank Centre, as well as at Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast), Space Station Sixty-Five, Treadgolds (Portsmouth), and Modebelofte (Eindhoven) for Dutch Design Week. Witham has a background in fashion. She previously worked at House of Holland and has designed outfits under her own label for the cast of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK, Olly Alexander, Little Mix, and Kate Nash. More recently, Witham was published in the 2024 Guardian Book of the Year, The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor, for which she produced a series of twelve full-page artworks. She is the founder of The London Dyke Market, is named on DIVA Magazine’s 2025 Power List, and was awarded second place for the 2025 Queer Britain Art Award.
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Every Mouth Needs Filling is a queer-led collaborative curatorial practice formed by Caitlin Fleming and Elisha Fall in 2023. Our work centres on activating queer histories and lived experiences through exhibition making, public programming, archival engagement, and community-building. Inspired by Hilton Al’s line “Every mouth needs filling,” We approach our work with care, intimacy, and shared inquiry. We formed in response to the closing of queer venues and the urgent need for spaces where underrepresented voices can gather, share, and make on their own terms. We aim to build accessible and sustainable cultural infrastructure through screenings, workshops, and discussion-based events. We’re especially committed to decentralised, intergenerational, and unsanitised queer practices rooted in South East London. Recent projects include lecturing and facilitating on the Queer Food Short Course & Residency for The Gramounce (2025), ‘Making Room’ Goldsmiths CCA in partnership with Threadbare Collective (2025), Wet In(FORM)ation, Outhouse Gallery (2025), Red Reminds Me Screening, Visual Aids (2024), ‘A Night of Perpetual Indulgence’ Screening (2024) ‘Our Bread & Butter’ House of Annetta (2024).
everymouthneeds
www.everymouthneedsfilling.com
The Textile Collection & Constance Howard Gallery is a centre dedicated to multidisciplinary textiles research, and is home to the Goldsmiths Textile Collection.
The Collection, founded in the 1980s by Constance Howard and Audrey Walker, comprises textile art, embroidery and dress from all continents. Our global collection is complemented with a variety of teaching materials and archives, including technical and experimental samples and Constance Howard's own teaching archive.
textilesgold www.gold.ac.uk/textile-collection/