I have an interest in exploring aspects of how we communicate our understanding of the world around us through words and images. With this installation, created for the Shelter Norfolk 30th anniversary exhibition at The Undercroft, Norwich, I ventured into new making territory, becoming interested in the interconnectedness of data and art, and how the combination of these contrasting elements – the warm, cozy feel of the knitting combined with the factual, cold aspects of numerical data - can help to develop curiosity and start discussions on pressing societal issues.

About the installation

This textile piece, titled ‘Lost Property’, consists of four handknitted colour block scarves that show data as if in a stacked bar chart. The colour blocks serve to visualise the data on ‘reasons for homelessness’ within Kings Lynn and West Norfolk between the years of 2019-2023*. A textile colour key sits alongside the artwork to help viewers begin to decipher the data within the colour blocks.

The installation is intended to encourage curiosity and questions about the data represented, to help visualise the gaps, trends and patterns, bringing the information within the report to viewers who may not otherwise read it.

Numerical data can and is used in particular ways to serve means, sometimes with little or no acknowledgement of the individuals who are represented by the data. When homelessness data is presented in charts and tables and graphs, it can, if we are not careful, skew how we ‘see’ – or perhaps more accurately do not see – the real people, the stories, the human beings, behind the numbers.

*Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. Homelessness Review. February 2024