In the 1960s the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz began to make large, three-dimensional textiles in sisal, calling them ‘Abakans’. Her material consisted partly of discarded rope, which she unravelled, dyed and reused. Abakanowicz’s textiles are intended to hang free in a room, rather than on a wall in the traditional way. Some con temporary viewers were shocked at her sculptures’ sexual allusions and similarities to a vagina – a motif that has always been surrounded by taboo.