Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Leeds Met design graduate launches electroknit exhibition
Electroknitter Elizabeth Chadwick
In residence at The Bowery Gallery, Headingley, until Friday 22 August, Elizabeth's woven tapestries are loosely annotated with stories by writer Thomas Theakston.
Last year Elizabeth graduated from her MA in Art & Design at Leeds Met, where she specialised in electroknitting, a process that involves the hacking of a 1980s electronic knitting machine.
Elizabeth commented: "Here in West Yorkshire, we live among the landmarks and relics of a once-thriving textile industry. But for most of us it is only on visits to the likes of Saltaire or Armley Industrial Museum that we become truly conscious of them, and aware of the immense presence they must have once had in peoples' everyday lives.
"Our exhibition really explores the theme of our region's rich textile heritage. Working collaboratively with writer Thomas Theakston, we have collected images and stories around Mills, the people who worked in them and the areas around to form a narrative that connects them altogether.
"Inspired by the imminent Grand Depart of the Tour de France, the exhibition is divided into two alternative journeys, and on our website, www.thegreatyorkshirellama.com, we have provided the postcodes to the locations so people can go and explore the areas for themselves."
In reference to the electroknitting process, Elizabeth added: "I got a knitting machine a few years ago and started to look at other artists who had used knitting machines in their work. I came across a tutorial online which showed you how to hack into an electronic knitting machine using a bit of simple programming. A few other artists and computer hackers across the world had already used the hack to produce some amazing work and I thought it would be a really interesting to experiment and expose these types of collaborations."
'Great Yorkshire Llama' exhibition is free and open to the public.