Mapping Climate Change: The Knitting Map & The Tempestry Project Kohler Gallery, Lawrence University WI

6 Oct 2023

Sept 22 – Nov 17, 2023

Jools Gilson

Artist in Residence Oct 16 – 20, 2023

Supported by Culture Ireland

The Knitting Map, Berman Museum of Art, PA (2021) as part of Mapping Climate Change: The Knitting Map & The Tempestry Project, curated by Deborah Barkun.

The Knitting Map (2005)

The monumental knitted cartography The Knitting Map which documents a year in the life of Cork City in Ireland is currently being exhibited at the Kohler Gallery at Lawrence University WI until mid-November. This large-scale textile installation by Jools Gilson and Richard Povall was made collaboratively with a community of older, working class women during Cork’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2005. A weather station and surveillance technologies were programmed to generate complexity of stitch linked to the busyness of the city, and the colour of yarn with the weather. This vast abstract artwork involved more than 2000 people and was hand knitted every day for a year. The Knitting Map is also the subject of the art history collection Textiles, Community & Controversy published by Bloomsbury in 2019.

Jools Gilson Residency (Oct 2023)

Artist Jools Gilson will be in residence at Lawrence University as part of the exhibition events for Mapping Climate Change: The Knitting Map & The Tempestry Project from Oct 16 – 20, 2023. This will include an Artist Talk (16 Oct), a Panel Discussion on the changing discourse of climate change with Jools, Deborah Barkun (curator), and LU faculty (17 Oct) and guest teaching for Visual Art and Dance students (18 / 19 Oct). More info: Beth Zinsli (beth.a.zinsli@lawrence.edu).

Bio

Jools Gilson is an artist, writer and educator. Her practice moves across the disciplines of dance theatre, creative writing, visual art and broadcast radio. Her work has been performed and exhibited internationally and has received awards from The Arts Councils of Ireland and England, Culture Ireland, Fulbright Ireland, The Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), New York Festivals and others. She is Professor of Creative Practice at University College Cork in Ireland. More info here. Contact: jgilson@ucc.ie