March 14th – 23rd, 2025 | The Mall Arts Centre, Youghal, Co. Cork
Greywood Arts and artist Katie Nolan are pleased to present The Knot On The Fly, an exhibition reflecting on the rich history and cultural legacy of the Youghal Carpets Factory. The exhibition will take place at The Mall Arts Centre in Youghal, opening on March 14th and running from March 15th to March 23rd from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM daily.
The exhibition is the culmination of a collaborative project with former workers of the renowned textile factory and their families, offering a poignant exploration of its socio-economic, cultural, and artistic impact. Through video, installation, 3D prints, letterpress, and printmaking, The Knot On The Fly considers the entropic nature of modern technology and the diminishing role of touch and manual skill in contemporary life. At the heart of the work is the concept of the human hand as technology, drawing parallels between traditional craftsmanship and the digital age.
The public is invited to attend the official opening on Friday, March 14th at 6:00 PM (doors open at 5:00 PM). Additionally, a conversation with the artist will take place on Saturday, March 15th at 12:00 PM, offering further insight into the research, artistic process, and community collaboration behind the exhibition.
Katie Nolan, a multidisciplinary artist based in West Waterford, explores the intersections of art, environment, and technology. She holds a BA in Visual Art from Sherkin Island and an MA in Art & Environment, where she examined the West Cork islands through the lens of archipelagic thinking. Her work is driven by a fundamental interest in how human interaction with technology shapes cultural and sensory experiences.
The Knot On The Fly has been generously supported by Cork County Council and Creative Ireland, fostering engagement with East Cork’s multi-ethnic community and using textiles as an intercultural language to encourage dialogue and knowledge-sharing.
For further information or to RSVP for the opening event, please contact:
Email: create@greywoodarts.org
Phone: 083 845 1750
Next Event: Hand Casting Workshop October 12th 2024
A Project about East Cork’s Past & Present Textile Traditions
With artist Katie Nolan, former Youghal Carpets Workers and their families, and a diverse cross section of professional and hobbyist textile makers
Greywood Arts in partnership with artist Katie Nolan have been engaging former Youghal Carpets factory workers and their families to conceive and develop an artwork shaped through social production, and that speaks to the historical, social, artistic and cultural reference points of the industry that was Youghal Carpets.
At the core of Katie’s practice is an interest in the relationship between humanity and technology and in particular, the impact of advances in technology on the future of work. As modern forms of tech, digital and AI continue to replace human ability, what will humans do for work and what will become of our haptic sensibilities?
Youghals’ carpet industry, dating back to the 1950’s became internationally renowned for its quality, style and durability, with noteworthy commissions such as the Las Vegas Casinos and the Palace of the Sultan of Brunei. A major employer and integral part of the local community and economy for several decades, its demise and closure in 1984 had a significant impact on the socio-economic fabric of Youghal and the surrounding areas.
Katie and Greywood Arts have been exploring the multidimensional story of the factory, its culture and the work lives lived of the staff at Youghal Carpets through a series of workshops involving ex workers, their families and many other interested parties.
An initial social gathering of ex employees in January 2024 at Greywood Arts, revealed a community of workers eager to recount and share their stories and memories. The event was a celebration of shared experiences and a rekindling of connections that time hadn’t eroded.
A series of intercultural weaving workshops followed in the Spring and Summer, where this foundational technology (weaving) was explored as both a utilitarian craft and as a medium for artistic expression. With participants from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds living in East Cork, these workshops opened up discussions around diverse textile and cultural capacities, material limitations and possibilities, and how these dictate the creative process. The experiences and creative endeavour showed the impact of tools on process, and led to discussion on skilled manual labour and considerations of the human hand as technology.
On August 25th, Katie and Greywood Arts hosted an Intercultural Textile Exchange that featured textile heritage from around the world. Contributors at the event were from Ireland, Ukraine, Belgium, South America, West Africa and beyond (all living in East Cork) and they showcased their textile traditions with displays and demonstrations. It was wonderful to see and hear these creatives sharing knowledge, comparing and critiquing techniques, and making connections through their various creative processes – demonstrating how textiles have the ability to tell stories and to connect people across cultures. Textiles are an intercultural language.
The ex workers at Youghal Carpets came to the events armed with precious memorabilia, old wool and jute, photographs and documents from their Youghal Carpets days. Katie felt compelled to honour these keepsakes and to record the workers anecdotal stories.
The words of Wolfgang Welsch “Undoing aesthetics, releasing it from old cultural binds, giving it new ties with the future…” inspired her to embrace the concept of “undoing” as an aesthetic. So we facilitated a papermaking workshop whereby photocopies of these items along with unspun old Youghal Carpet wool were re contextualised into new handmade sheets of paper. The recorded memories of the workers will be printed onto these handmade papers, a potent gesture to embed the words of the workers within some of the original fibres from the factory.
Katie will host a handcasting workshop on 12th October next at Greywood Arts. 42 hand casts are required (representing the role of 42 workers that were needed to prepare the looms before the machine could weave a carpet). Katie aims to capture the unique aspects of each individual hand. “My intention is to make a faithful and potent representation of the manual skill and labour that was part of the Youghal Carpet workforce.”
These sculptures will become part of an exhibition to be shown in the Spring, 2025 alongside a multi screen video installation exploring various aspects of the workers tasks, memories and experiences.
greywood arts 