Katerina Knight

My Material Memoir: Hands can Heal - Cloth can Care

Drawing upon the natural rhythms of the Earth as a guiding light; working with living materials I have homegrown, locally foraged and collected over time. From the act of growing, through to the process of making I am present, I am patient and I am evolving.

As I draw upon the toxicities I faced working within fashion, I have used the time for a personal challenge, in recovery from illness- slow textile craft becomes my most powerful tool in healing. Each textile exists as an individual artefact. And each work carries a pertinent symbol – a fragment of my restorative journey. Through embodied performance and artistic image creation, the cloth allows me to personally understand and universally express moving through healing. 

These works are imbued with the power to carve out space within and merge between landscapes. They hold a place within art, design and craft. But most importantly hold a place where I exist and create authentically. Through making solely with my hands, these laborious processes demand time. Much like making, healing too is a slow and patient act. This work honours both time and craft that transcends textiles. Displaying the healing of our Earth, and repairing the damage we have inflicted, will, too take time, presence and patience.

Whilst this narrative may be born from a place of darkness, its intent is not to resonate sadness. Rather this is work of empowerment. Work that honours and upholds the temporality of all things in this life.

So let us move together magically, thoughtfully and akin- as one. 

With thanks to Ruby Pluhar. Who journeyed with me. And together the cloth, my body and our Earth came to life in a way I never imagined possible.  

Katerina Knight is an English Textile Practitioner: Artist, Maker & Writer. 

She specialises in one-of-a-kind handmade textile artefacts that reimagine traditional techniques of hand embroidery, needlelace and natural dye.

Being trained as a Print Designer at The Glasgow School of Art, Katerina spent time working in luxury fashion. Feeling dissatisfied by the structural systems that uphold the industry, Katerina came to the RCA with the intent to realign her practice; forming a binding thread that intrinsically linked her making to the Earth, with care and compassion. She invites dialogues of healing and spirituality to be shared through slow craft. 

Katerina is a published writer and contributor to Selvedge Magazine. She was awarded a Distinction for her dissertation ‘Cloth of the Earth’, a poetic translation of personal and academic memoir. 

Awards

Burberry Design Scholarship - 2021/22 and 2022/23 

Batsford Prize Runner up - 2023

The Textile Society Postgraduate Award  - 2022

The Clothworkers Company 2nd Prize - 2022

The Textile Society Undergraduate Award  - 2019

GsofA Sustainability Funding  - 2019