For her new solo show, British textile artist Kate Jenkins has dreamt up an immersive knitted Italian restaurant complete with more than 500 works of art — and a bespoke collaboration with Balineum — inspired by Italy’s culinary traditions.
On view at London’s Air Contemporary from 30 October to 5 December, Kate’s Knitalian transforms the gallery into an old-fashioned restaurant and delicatessen. Think “Wes Anderson meets Lina Stores,” says Jenkins, referencing the nostalgic charm of the Italian deli’s original Soho location. Inside, she has created a magical world of knitted, crocheted and embroidered food, from pasta and pizza to garlic and gelato, all served with her signature wink. There’s a smiling ravioli called Smileyoli and a leg of Parma ham labelled senza carne (meat-free), with a grinning pig’s face — an inside joke from the pescatarian artist. “Quite a lot of the titles for the show have textile jokes in them,” she says. “I want it to be enjoyable, to amuse people and make them laugh.”
It’s one of the aspects of her work that resonated with Balineum founder, Sarah Watson, who sent Jenkins a self-described ‘fangirl message’ after seeing her fantastical equestrian installation in the Hermès window in Mayfair earlier this summer. “With so much noise in the world right now, it really stood out to me: joyful, wonderfully creative and full of humour. Her work made me smile and reminded me how much creativity just makes life better,” says Watson.
That spontaneous message resulted in the pair meeting and collaborating on bespoke ceramic tiles for the show. As it happens, Jenkins had been admiring the tiled backdrops of traditional Italian delicatessens and old-school grocery stores. “It’s that classic thing: you see chilies, red onions and salamis hanging down, and the backdrop is a beautiful panel of tiles,” she says. “I went into the meeting having just been to an Italian deli in London, and I had a massive tomato with me,” she notes. That purchase became the starting point of Tomasso, the show’s cheeky tomato mascot who now graces a tube lined tile panel above the deli counter.
Our team in Stoke then translated the tile design from Jenkins’ original sketches. It’s a similar process to how she dreams up her knitted pieces as well: first seeing the inspiration out in the wild, then sketching it, then making it. Though in the case of Kate’s Knitalian, she embarked on a culinary research trip, thanks to a seven-night Viking cruise from Venice to Rome. “Each day we went to a different place, and I kept a diary on board,” she says. In Venice, she sought out cicchetti and Aperol spritz; in Naples, she watched pizza being made from start to finish. “I’d buy the food, photograph it, eat it and then go back to my room and make whatever I’d eaten that day,” she notes. She returned with a sketchbook full of ideas that literally fed this show. (Read more about her trip here).
Jenkins has been constructing such imaginary worlds for nearly 20 years, including a knitted British greasy-spoon café in 2009 and a fish counter, called Kate’s Plaice the Stitchmongers, in 2015. “I get so many ideas for things and get really carried away. Then I just say, ‘Well, I might as well just go for it and do all of it!’” We’re so glad she did. You can make a reservation to visit Kate’s Knitalian now, and all works of art are available for purchase.
Photos: courtesy of Air Contemporary