Current issue | Letters Online | What's on | Webwatch | About us | Previous issues | Contact us | Subscribe/renew | Index | Terms & conditions | Your basket
If
art is supposed to challenge our perceptions and make
us look at the world in a different way, then Freddie
Robins succeeds on both counts. Her career began 20
years ago when she won the Womancraft magazine
knitting competition, with a knitted interpretation
of a tuxedo in mohair. This set the tone for the subversive
sweaters she is known for today.
After graduating from the Royal College of Art she worked in the fashion industry for a while, but found making functional objects frustrating. Her finely crafted, reassuring, domestic sweaters have instant appeal, but look more closely and they have a sinister twist. The uneasy juxtapositioning of the macabre and the cosy is unsettling yet it makes the difficult subject matter she tackles more palatable.
Freddie's
knitted and embroidered 'Knitted Homes of Crime' are
reminiscent of tea-cosies, but these houses are portraits
of homes associated with high-profile crimes committed
by women. When women perpetrate murder it is perceived
as more heinous, for women are defined as the nurturers
in society. Freddie designed the complex patterns
using her computer. Jean Arkell then knitted them
before Freddie embroidered the details and made them
up.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Knitted Homes of Crime. Installation. 2002 | Knitted Homes of Crime: Ethel. 2002. Hand-knitted wool, quilted lining fabric. Hand-knitted by Jean Arkell. 26 x18 x 16 cm | Tree Cosies. 1997. Installation for the Garden Party, Feering, Essex. Machine and hand knitted, yarn buttons. Hand-knitted by Molly Robin | Comfort
Creature. 1998. Wool, felt, plastic. 33 x 12 x 9 cm |
| Click the images to see a bigger version | |||
This work is challenging and uncompromising. Her distorted body pieces - sweaters with elongated limbs - communicate a fascination with the monstrous. In a recent exhibition which focused on disability - a subject most people shy away from - she made a short-sleeved sweater for Mat Fraser who is affected by the drug thalidomide. The sweater is emblazoned with the slogan: 'Short armed and dangerous'. It celebrates difference by drawing attention to it.
The content of Freddie's work is surreal in that her utilitarian objects function poetically rather than rationally. She approaches serious subject matter with humour, and plays with the idea of making the repellent seductive.
The exhibition will tour nationally. For a schedule contact: +44 (0)1206 577067, info@1stsite.co.uk, www.firstsite-online.org.uk
A 64-page colour catalogue is available, with essays by Dawn Ades, Claire Doherty and Linda Theophilus, price £10.
This
article is from Embroidery, Volume 54 No.2,
© Polly Leonard
Portrait by Ed Ironside/Crafts Council; other images
Douglas Atfield