By Holly Robson

@nomanslandknitwear

TELL US ABOUT THE PIECE YOU’RE SUBMITTING:

“Everyone needs fun. Everyone can benefit from art. Distraction from any turmoil.

My graduate collection is all about lesbians; a sapphic utopia. I always feel inspired by women who love women. As a feminine lesbian I have always felt erased within my sexuality. By utilising sapphic devotion as a point of inspiration within my final collection it has helped me reclaim the erasure I felt.

Within my work I want to dictate that being a lesbian doesn't have a certain look that various media outlets push upon us. I am proud to be a lesbian. I am proud to be inspired by lesbians. I am proud to say that my design work, particularly my final collection has finalised to me that lesbian is not a bad word. It is empowering! My practice, I hope, sits in a land of feminine power. A universe where women feel powerful and themselves.The world of lesbians; The sapphic renaissance. For lesbians everywhere to not feel silenced. In an age where politics censors and quietens the joy of queerness, I hope my work to be a place where it is loud. Loud and proud. Obvious and effervescent.I dream of making work inherently political, ingredients of rebellion, flavours of fearlessness.

I feel as though my work has always had a political push. I have always been called opinionated, often shushed by a conservative family member at Christmas over an elementary discussion of women's rights. "Too woke this, too woke that." WAKE UP. Change does not happen without action and the world needs change.

We cannot continue in a world where trans people fear for their lives. Where women who love women feel scared to hold hands in public. Where Palestine is not free. Where evil men everywhere make evil decisions about women's bodies. I feel the instinctive urge to protest. To fight for what is right, I always have. Feeling so strongly about politics everyday naturally means it wanders into my work every time; and that, I am proud of.

My entire collection is an entirely knitted collection knitted both by hand on the dubied and shima technology. I love knitwear, it is a craft that should be adored and appreciated; a skill that I adore. I was told it would be difficult to do an entirely knitwear collection within the time frame but when you love something that much, knitting never feels like a chore.”

Photos below by Georgia Edmunds & Richard Kelly

Tell us about your relationship between your art and identifying as a lesbian:

“Creating my NOMANSLAND collection has been one of the most empowering and cathartic experience of my life. Towards the end of my collection I was cleaning out my room and I found my diary from my first year of university. I wrote on one of the pages “I don’t think I like being queer.” It really took me back reading it, I am so proud I am so far away from this.

Every single fibre of my being now adores being a lesbian and I hope my collection embodies that. I hope any lesbian that sees my collection feels empowered and inspired to shout loudly and clearly I AM A LESBIAN. I am so unbelievably proud of myself for the outcome of my collection and feel so grateful that I learnt so much about myself in the process. I will continue to knit. Continue to celebrate lesbian love. Continue to be loud and political. No Mans Land 4ever Hols xxxxxxxx”