May 2018

Textiles is one of the oldest crafts known to humanity. This film is a tribute to women who walked and knitted through necessity, a sight that would have been familiar whether stockings, gloves or sweaters, time consuming activities fitted in with daily life traditionally worked on four needles.

Traditionally Cornish women would have knitted outdoors to make the most of the natural light and therefore a regular feature of the landscape. Like many poor communities everyone was needed to contribute. Filmed on a GoPro camera during my residency in Falmouth (2018) investigating traditional patterns, this film documents my walk from Fish Factory Art Space to Truro Wool shop, undertaken while creating a collection of sample patterns during a series of walks around the area.

The rhythm of walking and the rhythm of knitting can be hypnotic. It prompts questions about how we occupy ourselves in transit now, on our phones, listening to iPods, drinking coffee... so unproductive!

Central to my research at the University of Wolverhampton is the intimacy of exchange that occurs between people in a variety of art making situations by exploring the historical representation of women’s art through textiles, its links to craft and domesticity and its relationship to current practice.