One man’s mission to ‘knit’ the world together
Kirk Dunn's awesome interfaith knitted stained-glass windows are backdrop to a unique multidisciplinary show at JW3
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
When you think of knitting, cosy jumpers or cute baby booties might spring to mind. But interfaith cathedral-sized knitted stained-glass windows? Now that’s a first.
Canadian actor/knitter and Presbyterian “preacher’s kid” Kirk Dunn brings his one-man show and awesome knitted stained-glass windows to the UK next month and you can see them at JW3 on 15 May.
The Knitting Pilgrim, featuring the Stitched Glass tapestries, will be touring the country, starting in Scotland, and will have its first London presentation at JW3.
Theatre critic Lynn Slotkin says the multidisciplinary show is “a stunning piece of theatre… glorious and so moving.”
It combines personal storytelling, image projection and three huge knitted panels, designed in the style of stained-glass windows, that look at the commonalities and conflicts of the Abrahamic Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It recounts Kirk’s 15-year artistic and spiritual journey handknitting the ambitious project, and looks at why the faiths struggle to get along today, the meaning of art, the hell of grant-writing and the power of love to overcome major obstacles (and minor mishaps).
A Presbyterian “preacher’s kid”, Kirk learnt to knit on film sets and dressing rooms and then went on to study with legendary textile artist Kaffe Fassett, who says: “I applaud his moxie! The Knitting Pilgrim is astounding and it is amazing to engage with it and Kirk’s incredible story”.
“I got pretty good [at knitting] and started doing some designs,” says Kirk. “Then I took my knitting further doing installations. That was just after 9/11, and I was looking at the world. As a PK (a preacher’s kid), I had a background in faith with a father who was a minister with a very open, liberal, and inclusive theology, and I started looking at these three Abrahamic Faiths and wondering why it was that we just couldn’t get along.… That’s where the idea for The Knitting Pilgrim came from.”
The show premiered at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto in 2019, and has been performed to acclaim almost 100 times in Canada, Austria, Germany and the United States.
While Kirk is in London, on 2 June he will be installing his Patchwork Pride Project on the façade of Canada House, Trafalgar Square – yes, a giant knitted Pride flag hanging over Trafalgar Square
WATCH: Kirk Dunn talking about The Knitting Project
The Knitting Pilgrim is at JW3 on Thursday 17 May at 7.30pm. Tickets are £20 from jw3.org.uk
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