Since 2006, Amy Dickson, Jennifer Nightingale and Mary Stark have been creating new links between experimental cinema and textile practices through their individual practice-based research projects. The selection of films and expanded cinema performances that they will show at Close-Up look to generate a dialogue around themes of craft, community, technology and the way different media measure time. Unique processes and artistic networks are central to their shared interests.

Knitting a Frame 
Jennifer Nightingale, 2008, 5 min, 16mm

The ball of wool seen at the sitter's feet loops over the single-frame release of a 16mm Bolex camera and back to the knitting. For every stitch that is knitted, an exposure is made, creating a structural relationship between production of fabric and a frame.

Knitting Pattern no1
Jennifer Nightingale, 2013, 3 min, 16mm

The translation of a Fair Isle knitting pattern into an animation produced frame-by-frame, exploring time, pattern and optical colour mixing.

The Knitting Patterns Series
Jennifer Nightingale, 2016–2024

A series of knitting films that use a single-frame production technique to translate Guernsey knitting patterns. The films have been shot and edited on location in the fishing villages where the patterns derive from, on the coast of Cornwall, Yorkshire, Norfolk and the Faroe Islands. Gesture, landscape and film are ‘knitted together’ as a material object, re-embedding the patterns into the location that inspired them.

The Cornish Knitting Patterns: Porthleven; St Ives: Background Slip-Stitch; Polperro: Snake cable; The Lizard: Lattice
Jennifer Nightingale, 2016, 4 min

In these films the camera position corresponds with the visually dramatic Cornish coast and the locations that people historically inhabited when knitting these patterns.

The Faroese Knitting Patterns: Night and Day; Back and Forth; Goose Eye; Gjovi; Nordrogata
Jennifer Nightingale, 2017, 3 min

A selection of films that explore the natural rhythms of the Faroese landscape.

The Yorkshire Knitting Patterns: Robin Hoods Bay I; Whitby Pattern VII Flag
Jennifer Nightingale, 2023, 2 min

Cycles of tourism and tides. 

The Norfolk Knitting Patterns: Sheringham: Jimmy Chibbles Herringbone; Cromer: Gilbert Rook's Seeds and Bars Gansey
Jennifer Nightingale, 2024, 2 min

Two films that highlight the horizon of the Norfolk Coast landscape.

Weaving a Gift of Sight/The Man Who Knew Too Little/That’s Entertainment/The Wonderful Lie
Mary Stark, 2012, 4 min

In a studio in a former cotton mill, over 5 days, Mary Stark created a large-scale woven pattern (measuring 4 x 2 metres) from feature films of different gauges: 8mm, 9.5mm, 16mm and 35mm. The woven film was exhibited as an installation lit by unspooled film projectors. 

Weaving Film
Mary Stark, 2015–2024, 15 min, Performance involving a 16mm film projector, film leader, editing rack, splicing tape, and scissors

This performance highlights the craft and tactility of handling and editing film. The filmstrip is shown as a shiny sculptural form, shimmering for as long as the projector purrs.

Button Box Blast
Mary Stark, 2016, 3 min, 16mm

A box of buttons explodes into a chance pattern of light and optical sound. The buttons were placed one-by-one along a length of film in the dark room, which was exposed with a torch and processed by hand. Salvaged from a car boot sale, the buttons are set free from their tin to dictate the duration, form and rhythm of a film.

Tape Measure Film 100ft/30m
Mary Stark, 2024, 3 min, 16mm

This film calls attention to a common measurement of 16mm film: 100ft = 3 min. Negatives were made by scanning an architectural tape measure and printing onto acetate. These were then exposed onto 16mm black and white film. The numbers on screen increase as the length of film travels through the projector and time passes.

Nan Sewing
Amy Dickson, 2024, 5 min

“Footage of my nan sewing, taken in 2011 and revisited in 2024.” – A.D.

Light Time
Amy Dickson, 2013–2024, 15 min, performance

A performance work that looks to evoke a sense of cinema with light, heat and thermochromic screen-printed fabric.

Stitched Film
Amy Dickson and the Sewing Café Lancaster, 2024, 1 min, 16mm

Stitching, mending, chatting and drinking on every first Tuesday of the month at the Stonewell Tap in Lancaster. This stitched film was made on such an evening with Sewing Café Lancaster, a grassroots project that advocates for an ethical textile industry and regenerative textile practices.