2002
machine knitted wool

2100 × 1900 mm

Photography: Douglas Atfield

2001
machine knitted wool

600 × 600 mm
Private Collection

This piece is a natural progression for me. For the past couple of years I have been working on a series of distorted body pieces.   These knitted “jumpers” have a sleeve instead of a neck, a spare torso projecting from the stomach, four shoulders with four sleeves and sealed cuffs for missing hands. The series culminates in two full bodies joined at the head. A piece which two people can enter but which otherwise lies or hangs like an empty skin.   My research has been around the human body, medicine, disability and disfigurement, the freak show, taxidermy, mummies, religious iconography and other “curiosities”. I find the medium of knitted textiles a powerful tool for expression and communication because of the cultural preconceptions surrounding the area. It is a “friendly” medium, which can be used to engage your audience with a subject, which might otherwise cause them to turn away.

In “Billy Wool” I tackle the head with features. A piece, which presents more technical challenges than any of my previous work. The whole piece is knitted on a domestic knitting machine with many of the stitches being moved around and worked by hand. The final piece is more of a skin than a balaclava. When it came off the machine and lay on the ironing board it resembled a mummified body. In particular Lindow Man, who has become known as “Pete Marsh”, hence its’ title, “Billy Wool”.

(Written statement for Ikons of Identity, a Craftspace touring exhibition 2001 – 2002)

2001
machine and hand knitted wool, cotton and elastic, pompoms, buttons, glass heads
installed at firstsite at the Minories Art Gallery, Colchester

This series of work was inspired by the 17th century “scold’s bridle” which was used to punish scolds or gossips. These were, of course, primarily women as are the majority of knitters. I became interested in the idea of producing your own form of torture or punishment. Sitting down and doing something passive, creative and “useful”, such as knitting, only to have it used to punish or torture you. These cute, friendly, fluffy pieces beguile their actual use. Having the pompom in your mouth is a revolting experience, which would soon choke you. In “Wise Monkeys” the idea is taken further to also prevent you from using some of your other senses. You hearing is muffled by the pompoms. You eyes are blinded, being replaced by the traditional knitted toy’s eyes, the button.

The large bridle piece is based on an actual “scold’s bridle” in the Royal Armouries in The Tower of London. This piece contrasts pleasure with pain. The bridle is “plated” (lined) with cashmere yarn and, where as the original bridle had a serrated iron tongue for insertion into the mouth, this has a cashmere and mohair pompom. This piece also has pompoms to muffle your hearing and fastens around the face by the use of buttons instead of an iron padlock. The title “Wise Monkeys” comes from those Three Wise Monkeys who could “Hear no evil”, “See no evil” and “Speak no evil”.

(Written statement for Ikons of Identity, 
a Craftspace touring exhibition, 2001 – 2002)

2001 Knitting, hand embroidery, machine embroidery and heat transfer on found domestic linen. 
150 × 125 mm – 240 × 920 mm 
Private collection.

Lot 1189 Eighteen coloured table mats, fringed, and a quantity of d’oyleys, odd serviettes and pieces of linen.

At the back of most linen or airing cupboards you will probably find these eighteen coloured table mats, a quantity of d’oyleys, odd serviettes and pieces of linen. These items were once essential to every household but are now mostly redundant. I will look at their supposed function and the role that they played in every woman’s life. So much stitching, washing, starching, pressing and storing. These items represent so many hours of hard work and to what end? I often use word games to further my ideas and will employ this technique to come up with other forms that these textile items might take.

PIECES OF LINEN

PIECES OF LENIN

In response to all of this I will produce a series of contemporary textile pieces which, like the list above, may form a rather motley assortment of items which have come together through chance rather than intention. I will use both old and new materials, incorporating traditional techniques such as knitting, stitching and embroidery. (Statement taken from proposal for “A Public Auction of Private Art Works”, 2001) www.somewhere.org.uk/auction

Mat Fraser wears “SHORT ARMED AND DANGEROUS”

2000
Machine knitted wool

730 × 480 mm

Catherine Long wears “AT ONE”
2001
Machine knitted wool, hand embroidered cotton yarn
460 × 400 mm

Commissioned by The City Gallery, Leicester
for Adorn, Equip, an exhibition discussing issues surrounding design and disability.

BODY 
NO BODY 
S0ME BODY 
ANY BODY

Wordplay formed the basis of these two commissions made for, and in conjunction with, Mat Fraser and Catherine Long. Strong, confrontational wording with an element of humour and the unexpected.

Disability has long been the butt of jokes. I can remember the one about the one legged, one armed man who was getting on the bus and the bus conductor said to him, “Hop on, you look (h)armless”. I wanted to turn these and other “accepted” jokes and sayings upside down. With Mat, who has short arms, we also wanted to challenge the commonly held assumption that disabled people are passive and somehow harmless. I originally had the wording ARMLESS AND DANGEROUS in mind, a play on “Armed and Dangerous”. Mat is far from harmless but, as he corrected me, he is not armless either. He is in fact SHORT ARMED AND DANGEROUS. This exactness of language is very important. It is not about political correctness, it is about thinking, caring and acceptance. Catherine has one arm, she does not only have one arm. The “only” implies some kind of loss or deficiency which is far from the truth. We used the word ONE on both her sweater and glove. Her glove has the word ONE embroidered across the knuckles, where you might otherwise have “love” or “hate” tattooed. When she holds her clenched fist up and flicks out her thumb it has the word UP embroidered on it. She is ONE-UP. The tattoo theme was taken through into her sweater. She has a butterfly and a bunch of daisies, symbols which have significant personal meaning for Catherine,   embroidered onto her shoulder. There is a banner running through the daisies, which reads AT ONE. She is at one with her one arm, why aren’t you?

(Written statement for “Adorn, Equip”, a Leicester City Gallery touring exhibition, 2001 – 2002)

www.adornequip.co.uk

2000
machine knitted wool
1510 × 580 × 700 mm
installed at Sotheby’s, London

2000
Machine knitted wool, buttons, silk, wood, upholstery materials
990 × 490 × 260 mm
Private commission.
Collaboration with Mary Little, furniture designer and maker.

This commission came about in an unusual way. I had never met Mary Little before but we had a private client in common. The three of us were at the Jerwood Furniture Awards at the Crafts Council Gallery in London where Mary was exhibiting, having been short-listed for the award. The client introduced us saying that he had a plan for the two of us. He wanted to commission us to make him something although he knew that we had never met before and that we were unfamiliar with each others work. He rang Mary the next week with his budget and said that we were to make him a surprise. He did not want to see any working drawings or discuss the piece. We were just given a cheque up front and told to get on with it.

Mary and I met twice. The first time to brainstorm and to get to know each other and our respective work. The second time to come up with a final design. We phoned each other continuously and faxed and posted drawings and colour ideas. Mary also sent the client a contract. It was a straightforward process if a little slow. The collaborative design process was very inspiring. It pushed us further than we could ever have got alone and took us off in new, unexpected directions. Neither of us could have come up with the piece alone.

Our final design, “Footsie”, satisfied us both in terms of aesthetics, function and form. It was also a piece which fully represented both of us. We had conceived of it together but we now had to use our individual skills to fulfill it. Mary started by making the base and then it was passed backwards and forwards between us with me doing the knitting and Mary finally upholstering it.

“Footsie” is a large, lozenge shaped footstool on rockers. The upholstered stool has buttons sewn around the perimeter, onto which a knitted cover is buttoned. The knitted cover has two pairs of socks attached to it, one pair facing the other. When placed between two seated people they can rock it by putting their feet into the socks and moving their feet backwards and forwards. I also embroidered our names “Little Robins”, the word “Footsie” and the cleaning instructions onto the knitted cover in a contrasting colour.

(Statement originally written for “Artists’ Stories”, a-n website, 2000)

1999 Experimental website
http://www.iniva.org/xspaceprojects/robins 

Commissioned by the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) for X-Space, their experimental web space. Produced by Joanne Moore.

I have only recently become involved with new technology and am very excited by its artistic potential. I have started to familiarise myself with the debates around new technology and with computers in general. I have basic computer skills and am in the process of teaching myself how to use “Adobe Photoshop”. I would like to research into knitting and the internet as a way to explore and communicate my fascination with the process of knitting and knitted structures. There are many similarities between knitting and the internet. They are both physically solitary processes. Both are making sense of, translating and communicating information. Computer programs consist of long sequences of instructions that individually are very simple, so does knitting. Both can produce extremely complicated results. Computers and knitting patterns use grids, with coloured squares to relay visual information. With both mediums it is easy to “undo” or “unravel” your work. However knitting is an “everyday skill” of the past with social and cultural associations whereas computers and the internet are an “everyday skill” of the future which cross social, cultural and geographical boundaries. I would like to culminate my research in a web site which is controlled by the user and results in the production of a knitted structure – virtual knitting.
(Statement taken from application to inIVA for X-Space commission, 1999)


1999 machine and hand knitted yarn 
in acrylic cases
Each case measures 900 × 1200 × 100 mm 


Public commission by the London Borough of Hackney for Shoreditch Library
80 Hoxton Street, London N1 6LP


The knitted gloves that form the basis of this public art commission relate to a piece of local history and to a function of the library. Each glove is named after a local character, either historical or contemporary. For example: Guy is a pair of gloves with badly burnt fingers. The letter warning of the Gunpowder Plot was received in Hoxton in 1605 and Guy Fawkes was duly arrested in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament. Shoreditch Library can give you information on the government and basic legal advice.

Within this piece gloves are used to represent the hand, a universal symbol that cuts across age, race, sex, class and culture. The hand is also a symbol for much of what goes on within a library; finding the books, turning the pages, writing or using the computer keyboards. Woolly gloves are an ordinary items, worn for generations by ordinary people. Here the library and the knitted glove get given extraordinary treatment.

Freddie Robins’ first public art commission consists of two large wall mounted acrylic cases containing 17 “pairs” of knitted gloves. Explanatory panels, mimicking those used in museums, are hung next to each case. These contain the infomation that links each glove to the library and to the local area. The piece is hung either side of the main staircase down to the basement level of the library.
(Statement taken from Hands of Hoxton Press Release, April 1999)

Stories behind gloves
(Top row, right to left)
Thomas All library members have access to the library’s business library. During the 17th century Hoxton was renowned for its’ “green fingers”. Thomas Fairchild was the greatest of the Hoxton market and nursery gardeners. He was a prosperous businessman and had he been alive today he could further his success through use of the business library.

James 
This library holds local and national information on health. By the 19th century Hoxton had became home to a number of private lunatic asylums. James Parkinson was a local doctor who lived at 1 Hoxton Square. He initiated many improvements and pressed for the humane treatment of the patients treated within these asylums. The illness known as Parkinson’s Disease is named after him. He identified this disease in an essay in 1817.

Kate 
This library has a children’s library which includes books for the under fives. It also has a textbook and home work collection to help children with their schoolwork.
 Kate Greenaway (1846 – 1901), the famous writer and illustrator of children’s books, was born at 1 Cavendish Street in Hoxton.

(Middle row, right to left)
Henry This library has local and national newspapers and holds information about what’s on. 
In the 19th century Shoreditch had its own specialist Sunday morning bird market in Sclater Street. Henry Busby Bird was a notable local politician in the early 20th century. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.

Lakshmi This library stocks information on the world faiths and can supply information about local places of worship.
 Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune.

Peter This library holds story telling sessions for children.
 Captain James Hook is Peter Pan’s adversary in J M Barrie’s classic children’s story “Peter Pan”.
Caroline
This library is free to join and there is no charge for borrowing books.
Thumbs up, the hand sign for “good”.

(Bottom row, right to left)
David 
This library works “hand in glove” with other libraries to give you access to books and information held there.
 David is the Head Librarian at Shoreditch Library (1999).

Andrew
 This library provides access to the internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) for all its’ members.
 These gloves represent the single-hand alphabet sign for “WWW” (World Wide Web).

All gloves were machine knitted by Freddie Robins except for Thomas which were hand knitted by Jean Arkell.

Photography: Jamie Thompson

1999
machine knitted wool
installed at the Crafts Council Gallery, London
Noway in the collection of KODE – kunstmuseene i Bergen, Norway
Legroom in the collection of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum

Photography: Ed Barber/Crafts Council