This page brings together a series of wall and floor-based installations created using the spool knitting technique.
French knitting, a ‘hobby craft’, is a versatile technique that can be reinterpretated using a wide range of materials to produce work of varied scale. Easy to learn and visually attractive, the artist chose the technique for her collaborative and participatory projects (Introduced on the page: projects archives). The technique was also chosen for commission works (Paintings in Hospitals, The Barkantine, Barts & The London NHS Trust, UK).
Concerned with the nature of the creative process and the condition and location of art production, Dupré’s spool knitted works celebrate the vernacular and creative skills that are too often invisible, marginalised or being lost through migration, war and globalisation.
Dupré used manufactured knitting spools, including those made by Pony Needle Industries (India) who sponsored many of her projects. She also made her own, to knit wider tubes.
French Knitting with Rubber, 2003. Performance, La Résidente, installation at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland. Residence at IMMA de fil en aiguille… snáth nasc, (thread to needle) 2003-2004 projects archives.
Spirals, 2011
Photo © FXP Photography, London
spirals, 2011. French (spool) knitted wool and strips of Lycra fabric, galvanised wire, electric wire, plastic tubing, Lion Brand Yarns. 0m50 diameter x 0m10 D (each spiral).
Spirals were exhibited in New York at the Lion Brand Yarns Studio in 2011 and at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University for the 2014 Knitting Nottingham exhibition.
Françoise Dupré interviewed by Patty Lyons at the Lion Brand Yarn studio
arabesques, 2006
arabesques, 2006. Site specific installation for solo exhibition joie de faire at the Menier Gallery, London. Black irrigation pipe, galvanised wire, cable ties, French (spool) knitted black elastic cord, pins. 2m80 H x 4m53 W x 2m40 D.
The exhibition was the third and final stage of the artist’s Alexandra Reinhardt Memorial Award, joie de faire (the making of stuff), 2006-2007. The project is discussed in projects archives.
Fleur bleue, 2007
Fleur bleue, 2007. Wall installation for the international and touring group exhibition Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2007-2009, New York and touring USA).
French (spool) knitted nylon and elastic, mirror and glass discs, acrylic discs, blue plastic bottle tops, bead and sequin pins, woven and printed carrier bags. 2m20 H x 2m45 W x 0m03 D
Photo © FXP Photography, London
Parterres, 2004
Parterres exhibition in 2004 at the Charles Darwin University gallery, Northern Territory, Australia was part of the artist research residency at the university. Floor installation, French (spool) knitted wool and nylon, cable ties. 2m80 diameter x 0m3 H.
French knitting on cake boards, 2002-2005
Photo © FXP Françoise Dupré
French knitting, 2005, wall installation, Crafts Council touring exhibition Knit 2 Together Concepts in Knitting. Wool, mirrors, pins, lenses, feather, nylon, hair clips, glitter, cake boards. 7m W x 1m08 x 0m03 D
This cake board installation was first made for the 2003 solo exhibition French Knitting at the Gallery in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK.
Placed in a grid-like pattern, the installation evokes the simplicity and repetitiveness of the knitting activity. Between painting and sculpture the installation subverts the seriality of minimalism and engages with issues around the nature and context of art production.
Other cake boards installations included in 2002 tricot français at Beau Monde, Soho, London, UK.
Françoise Dupré 