Anita Bruce

Anita’s intriguing, ethereal knitted creations draw attention to the plight of the natural world, as Katy Bevan discovers

- Katy Bevan

ANITA BRUCE and I met when we were both contributing to the UK’s version of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef at the South bank Centre. Crafters had been asked to create coral forms, to raise awareness of the plight of the coral reefs and their battle against sea pollution. Anita’s contribution stood out, being neither crocheted nor hyperbolic, but was rather a wire plankton knitted in the round.

What I didn’t know then is that all of Anita’s work is about the environment and the threat that global warming poses to the delicate eco-system of the sea. “My work reflects my concerns about the exploitation of nature and the earth’s resources by man, disrupting this balance and resulting in habitat loss and accelerated climate change,” she says. “Knitting is the perfect medium for me to symbolise this fragile web of connections.”

At the Knitting & Stitching Show, her knitted wire plankton were pinned into frames, as if catalogued in a museum of natural history. I mistook them for fallopian tubes and other mysterious inner-workings - although this is not far from fact, as plankton also go unnoticed, but are nevertheless crucial to life.