LEONIE CAMERON
My work is always conceptually driven, so my process starts with an idea often taken from research on folklore or my own interpretation of the wildlife around me. To create a pattern for the work, I use graph paper and most often hand sketch the subject of the work on to this. For text work I take inspiration from vintage colourwork knitting charts and cross-stitch patterns to find fonts I like. Just like many painters and artists in other mediums, I enjoy that my works start with a sketch and end up as something completely different. Even though these graphs are integral to creating my work, I often add or change stitches as I go so even if I used the pattern again, no two pieces could ever be exactly the same. I can also never truly know the scale of a piece until it is finished, which adds an element of surprise.
Each tapestry I make is completely hand knitted by myself using my own unique patterns. Knitting is an incredibly physical and tactile craft and I truly feel that the works I make are an extension of myself through the way I am so physically and personally intertwined with the making of the work.
“My knit work is non-linear, not knitwear and not a wearable thing, I view it like painting with fibre, stitching together stories and reimagining where we situate hand worked textile.”
I have always taken inspiration from coastal environments and wildlife. I currently live in Margate where the coastline is beautiful and often quite rugged and wild, which is an endless source of inspiration to me. Making work always starts with spending time in nature and picking up on small details and intricacies in the flora and fauna of where I am.
I also watch and listen to a lot of history documentaries and podcasts. I’m really interested in our past and the way it can inform our future. The work featured in this FELT Collection is heavily influenced by the BBC podcast ‘Witch’ by India Rakusen and research about the ancient tradition of ‘The Wheel of the Year’. The month of May brings ‘Beltane’, the festival of fire and fertility. I chose to use three mischievous running hares as a representation of the fertility aspect of the festival, with Hares and Rabbits often associated with the Christian festival of Easter, spring and new life, yet at the same time being vilified through much of history as ‘Witches’ Familiars’. Hares are often seen to be the allies or animal manifestations of witches in folklore throughout the world and especially in the height of witch trials. I often like to show vilified or misunderstood animals within my work as an act of resistance, subversion and care. I feel animals with negative folkloric associations are often persecuted wrongly, creating links in my mind with queer histories.
Queerness always sits at the forefront of my practice, informing the work I make in both obvious and subtle ways. The text piece created for ‘Texere’ uses a quote from the ancient Greek poet Sappho: ‘You Burn Me’, a small fragment of a poem likely incomplete due to the censorship and destruction of the poet’s work. Linking to the fire aspect of Beltane, whilst little is known about this quote, I interpret and champion it in my work as a passionate declaration of queer love.
My work has a strong focus on craft and I like subverting the way that textile work, especially perceived domestic techniques such as knitting, are seen and valued. It is commonplace to expect a knitted item to be something with ‘function’: a blanket or a worn item such as a jumper or hat, however I like to position my textile work outside of that, something afforded the perceived purpose of paintings and non-functional sculptural objects instead. Displaying my pieces in a home environment means the textile work within it is still being valued, lived with and loved in a domestic space, just in an alternative and unexpected way, sparking conversation and consideration of how we value domestic craft and textile work.
Leonie Cameron is an artist working and living in Margate, UK. Cameron’s work sits at the intersection of textile, craft and sculpture with a focus on hand textile processes. Through research focusing around folklore and her own relationship with the natural world, she knits together works which aim to communicate themes of protection, queer ecologies and care.
Cameron graduated with a First-Class Honours BA in Sculpture from The University of Brighton in 2020, before undertaking her MA in Sculpture at The Royal College of Art from 2021 – 2023. Recent exhibitions include “Love and Mankind is Grass”, an exhibition presented by the Blue Whip Sculpture Directory at Joseph Wales Studios, Margate, UK and ‘The Ingram Prize 2024’ at Unit 1 Gallery, London, UK. She is a beneficiary of the 'Gilbert Bayes RCA Sculpture Award 2023' and a finalist in the 2024 ‘Ingram Prize’.
