Peace be with you: an intervention @ the Blue Boy

Heidi Gardner and Peter Gardner, a husband-and-wife artist duo, recently visited the Pathfoot Building with their peacemakers loom

The loom consists of a 181cm in diameter, 104cm high, circular, wooden French knitting loom. Bringing together elements of contemporary art practice, craftivism and Christian spiritual accompaniment, the installation focusses on peacemaking primarily at the personal and relational level, as a response to the conflict we all encounter within our lives and the wider world.

Over the course of a week, visitors were invited to join the artists in a repetitive, simple action of knitting and building peace through the sharing of many small actions and kind words. This shared action produced a single textile piece, symbolic of the conversations and the temporary community of peacemakers created around the loom. This piece has now been used to wrap the ‘Blue Boy’ sculpture in front of the Pathfoot Building.