Textiles are traditionally associated with unremarked domesticity and everyday clothing. This exhibition moves textiles into a new realm where pieces are primarily decorative and ornamental, where they clearly speak for themselves. Some are quite beautiful, many uncomfortable, and all thought-provoking.

At the heart of the exhibition are works by internationally regarded artist Michael Brennand Wood. This Final Twist (pictured), Holding Pattern and Sweet Jaine are all large, three-dimensional hemispheres which, when viewed from a distance, seem like coherent brightly coloured explosions. But closer inspection reveals what underpins their dynamics. In Holding Pattern some 70-plus wooden dummies are scorched and contorted; from these trapped bodies emanate steel pins up to a foot in length, capped by butterflies, howling masks and other dark shapes. Sweet Jaine is as optimistic as Holding Pattern is dark, its steel pins hold up a third dimension that explodes with appliqué flowers and happy patterns. This Final Twist aspires to Sweet Jaine’s, optimism while struggling with the darkness of This Holding Pattern.

By contrast, beauty, sweetness and romance pour out of Lemon Tart and Carrot Cake. In each, Hannah Yate skilfully uses Jacquard weaving in gold, orange and buttery lemon coloured threads to animate two textured panels: one of a man and the other of a woman, each lovingly engrossed in their cookery. In Draw Sort, Lucy Leonard, artist and engineer, expresses her personal love for domestic order via animation. In a video composed of a fast-moving series of still clips there takes place a feverish emptying, sorting and reclassifying of objects, one at a time. Cards, phones, bubble wrap, papers and pens are all arranged and rearranged in a drawer, to the compulsive and repetitive sound track of clicking which falls somewhere between the sound of a disapproving tongue and that of an electronic counter.

The Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury, is part of Mary Hare, the national Grammar School for Deaf Children. A student piece on show is the chilling and painful Miss Havisham Regrets by Jade McCrory. This starkly simple hanging piece is comprised of bamboo and bleached calico. Lengths of bamboo form hoops held together by the ripped calico, creating a crinoline shape, speaking loudly of Miss Havisham’s tattered wedding plans, while the top of the piece ends in a formal arrangement of calico rosettes and bows, a reminder of her tenacity as she survives, endures and hopes.

This is a substantial exhibition in every sense of the word. It is large, comprising 44 works by 15 artists. Pieces that have all been made by artists who understand the history of textile making , who have a consummate mastery of the techniques they employ and the materials they use, and the imagination to push forward the boundaries of Textile Art.It continues until November 5 and is open between 10am. and 4.30 pm, Monday to Friday.