Kate Just is political and feminist fibre artist working to bring awareness to a wider audience. Just creates knitted images and text to convey messages of political outrage/ awareness of female plight or, with her most recent exhibition, healthy words to live by. Although her technique of knitting is the same throughout her practise the contents differs wildly. Just’s practise also has a community and conversational focus. in two of her previous shows, Anonymous was a women and Self care action, she continued to knit throughout the duration of the shows, encouraging viewers to sit and converse with her about different topics.1 Creating part of the exhibition in full view of the audience fully engages people to the topic of the show, as well as allowing them to experience the labour of the work first hand. The labour of fibre art is often overlooked due to the industrialised knitting and clothing industry that exists today. Cloths and fabric are a mundane part of everyday life. Therefore, they are often overlooked in the same way when it comes to fibre art as well. However, Just brings the labour to the forefront of the viewers mind by sitting directly in front of the exhibition knitting part of it.
June 10, 2019 – April 30, 2021
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Linden New Art (2023)
Beechworth Contemporary Art Award (2022)
1 Kate Just, “Anonymous was a woman,” Kate Just, April 2021, https://www.katejust.com/anonymous-was-a-woman.
Sarah Jacquiline 