A NEW exhibition - which highlights the power of textiles to explore and explain key personal and political issues - has opened at the Sunny Bank Mills gallery in Farsley.

Tangled Up is described as a powerful yet playful expression of the history and flexibility of textiles ranging from the joys of sapphic love to the trauma of relationship breakdowns to the extremes of political repression.

Sunny Bank Mills' arts director Anna Turzynski said: "Like many people, I have always instinctively regarded textiles as functional.

"We are surrounded by textiles, from the clothes we wear to the contents of our homes, and they often go unnoticed as anything other than a practical means of covering ourselves or living our lives.

"Often associated with the home, textiles have not always been considered as art or even contemporary craft.

"This exhibition explodes this myth and illustrates so graphically that their rich history can be a tool for protest, for anger and for a whole host of powerful emotions.

"Some of this exhibition is intensely raw and honest, all of it is thought-provoking."

Tangled Up is open between 10am and 4pm Tuesday to Saturday, and from 12pm until 4pm on Sunday, until June 30. 

Entry is free.