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.