Slits, Tits and Phallic Knits

Really happy to be given the chance to present my paper Slits, Tits and Phallic Knits at the Medium Conference, at the London School of Mosaic on Wednesday 19th Februrary.

It was a thought provoking conference exploring the diverse range of practices within the fine art including, board games, tap dancing, drawing, knitting, architecture, film and weaving. All the papers offered fresh ways of considering the use of public space and how we interact with it, or as journeys into the mind, where we try to better understand ourselves and others.

My own paper explored feminism and knitting, to explore phallocentric models and alternative female symbols, and using materials to convey feminist and anti-capitalist ideas. A brief introduction can be read in my abstract:-

Often viewed as a nice old granny craft, knitting is entwined with women’s history - it can be homely and reassuring, or ironic and subversive.

Body Politics

My Freudian inspired knits blur gender boundaries to examine the phallocentric construction of femininity. Inspired by the minimalist creatures in the film Aliens, Mutter III, fuses several oedipal stages to explore the nurturing-destructive duplicity of the Mother archetype. Playing with the girly connotations of the colour pink, Mutter IV, features pubic hair to counteract the smooth waxed bodies in the media, while Mutter II is a simplified representation of a woman with multiple breasts.

Often displayed as anthropomorphic creatures, the flexible knitted structures are adaptable to any space, enabling new narratives to develop between the piece, the audience and its surroundings.

Material

My current work merges disparate materials to explore with the visual language of textiles:-

• Playing with tradition, knitting with unconventional materials (twine, string, wire, paper yarns), or making own yarns from recycled materials (fabric, plastic bags and newspaper). Patching and darning promotes sustainability, but it can also be an anti-capitalist statement or symbolise emotional repair. Textile Turds (made from recycled yarns), comments on the consumer appetite for fast-fashion, as it both devours natural resources and excretes textile waste at an unsustainable rate.

• New material dialogues, combining textiles with sculptural materials (plaster, concrete, paper pulp, wax, resin and jesmonite). Plaster makes fragile stitches tough, while the soft, supple sensation of latex adds a subversive element to conventional knitting.

Unravelling the nurturing connotations of knitting, my artwork challenges the traditional hierarchy of the arts, using a craft associated with women’s domestic work.

The full paper can be read here.

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