Embodied Knits

Sofie Roterman won the Horlait-Dapsens prize for Embodied Knits, her master’s graduation project at KASK in Ghent. “Your hands itch to test [the knits’] resilience, stretchiness, weight or how much they rustle and crackle,” according to the jury report. Roterman knitted several of these tactile objects in the TextielLab. She selected materials that stimulate the senses and let these materials determine the final shape. She often opts for challenging material combinations, in this case wool, Lycra and remnants of thick monofilament from commercially produced broom bristles. Work that she had originally woven on a handloom was reimagined on the industrial flat knitting machine in the TextielLab. The machine was programmed to pause at certain moments so that the stiff bristles could be manually inserted. Roterman and the product developer subsequently wrote a knitting programme that achieved the same effect without the manual intervention. The final samples aim to seduce the senses. The project was exhibited at the Industrie Museum Ghent and Wonder Kortrijk in 2023. In 2024, it will feature in Roterman’s first solo exhibition in Scharpoord Experimental Art Space Knokke from February to mid-April.