Soft Ground: Walking the Thread

Can walking find the rhythm of knitting?

Soft Ground is a new walking and knitting collaboration with Donegal artist Julie Griffiths, supported by the British Council's UK–Ireland Culture Connects programme.

Bringing together walking, knitting, photography and environmental enquiry, we are exploring connections between the landscapes and cultural traditions of Donegal and the Scottish Borders.

Walking and knitting share a repetitive, contemplative rhythm: one step follows another, one stitch follows another. Both of us love both: walking and knitting. But what happens when we try to do both at the same time? Does this leisurely rhythm become work? Are we revisiting the long tradition of women's multitasking? Or can the landscape itself become part of the making?

Our starting point is a remarkable collection of historical photographs of women in Ireland and Scotland carrying enormous baskets of turf or herring on their backs, sometimes knitting as they walked. These images raise questions about women's labour, endurance, resourcefulness and the relationship between bodies, materials and landscapes. Photography will play an important role in our own exploration, connecting these historical images with contemporary experiences.

Through reciprocal visits, barefoot walks, encounters with peatlands and grazing-exhausted landscapes, and experiments with locally sourced wool, we will investigate the relationships between movement, material and environmental care. Wool from sheep grazing my field in Redpath will meet abandoned stores of Donegal wool in Julie's basement, giving forgotten and overlooked materials a new life.

Our collaboration will result in small joint textile works alongside photographs, field notes and conversations, laying the foundations for a longer artistic exchange across the Irish Sea.

Supported by the British Council and Arts Council Ireland.