Photo: Emma Wood
English artist Kate Jenkins creates textile sculptures that’ll make you crave a seafood meal. Over the last 12 years, she has knit and crocheted platters of delectable dishes—everything from fast food to cured meats and veggies. But above all, her most impressive pieces are of golden-eyed sardines, glittering lobsters, and dazzling king prawns that are laid out as you’d find them at a fish market or a raw bar.
Growing up, Jenkins realized that she preferred to interpret her creative ideas in 3D using wool rather than in a drawing or painting. After a successful career as a knitwear designer, she began to shift her focus to food. “I was always looking for different ways to use my love of wool, textile, and color,” Jenkins explains. “And that’s how my art was born. The everyday has always fascinated and inspired me, particularly food. So I began to take things we all know and love—like fish and chips—reinventing them in wool.” Her goal, above all, is to make people smile when they see her modern textile art.
In 2015, Jenkins created a London-based installation called Kate’s Place the Stitchmongers in which she crafted sardines, mussels, clams, and more into a full-size fish counter. Her largest showing to date, she purchased the food as a reference for scale and texture. (Something she does with all of her pieces.)
Jenkins is now working on a follow up to Kate’s Place with Kate’s Bakes. The upcoming installation swaps seafood for baked goods, and it will be on display at the Handmade Festival in Barcelona in May 2019. If that locale is too far, you might be in luck—Jenkins is working to tour Kate’s Bakes around the world after Spain.
Kate Jenkins creates modern textile art that’ll make you hungry.
Photo: Emma Wood
Photo: Emma Wood
For over a decade, she has knit and crocheted food. Her most impressive pieces are of seafood.
Photo: Emma Wood
Photo: Emma Wood
Photo: Emma Wood
Photo: Emma Wood
Photo: Emma Wood
She’s now working on a collection of baked goods to appear at the Handmade Festival in Barcelona in May 2019.
Kate Jenkins: Website | Facebook | Instagram
My Modern Met granted permission to use photos by Kate Jenkins.
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