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Out on a Limb – Knitted works

Out on a Limb was an assemblage of sculptural pieces created by Robins for exhibition at The Project Space in ‘COLLECT 2013’, Saatchi Gallery, London.

Robins’ research for ‘The perfect’ (Robins REF Output 1) left her with a large quantity of ‘waste’ material in the form of knitted ‘body’ forms. Her next major project used these forms as a starting point. Responding to ideas about what it is to be human, and to experience loss, death, grief and mourning, Robins worked spontaneously: knitting, crocheting, embroidering, sewing and pinning onto the knitted bodies and body parts. The results were made three-dimensional by filling them with expanding foam; this gave them form (enabling them to stand) but added little weight. They remain visually and materially light, a marked contrast to the darkness inherent in the themes being explored.

Robins’ visual research included exploring the practices associated with ossuaries and charnel houses, and the visual aesthetics employed in displays of the dead. Other influences were outsider artists, particularly Katharina Detzel and Marie Lieb, and the American fibre artist Judith Scott.

Out on a Limb challenged traditional concepts of craft, including how it might be made or look. Each piece evolved from the processes of making, rather than being designed then made. Robins adopted an expedient approach theoretically close to bricolage. Her materials were samples and surpluses, things donated, inherited and found. The assemblage grew organically, with shapes, materials, processes and colours used in initial pieces informing subsequent ones.

After being selected to exhibit Out on a Limb at ‘COLLECT 2013’, Robins was awarded funding from the Arts Council to create and display her work in The Project Space at the Saatchi Gallery. She was also invited to be a panel member for the ‘COLLECT Public Programme: Project Space in Conversation’ (2013).