Kate Just, A Sign of the Times: A knitted translation of Robert Montgomery: MINE LOVE, DISTRIBUTE HOPE, 2019, Fort Smith, Arkansas, as part of The Unexpected, an urban and contemporary art project (2026)
Hand knitted acrylic yarn, timber, canvas
56 x 72 cm x 2.5cm
Robert Montgomery’s LED sign bearing the phrase “MINE LOVE, DISTRIBUTE HOPE” was installed in Downtown Fort Smith, Arkansas in 2019 as part of The Unexpected, an urban and contemporary art project.
Montgomery is a Scottish-born, London-based poet, artist and sculptor. He wanted to produce a work that felt universal while at the same time being contextually related to the economic and social realities of the Fort Smith community.
He reflected: “Both of my grandfathers were coal miners and they were also very loving men who instilled their children and grandchildren with a passion for education and a sense of hope for the future. They mined coal, but they also mined love and shared hope. This very short poem is a poem for them, and as such it also celebrates manual workers everywhere who work hard for all of us, manual workers build and maintain our cities and we all owe them respect and gratitude.”
Kate Just is a queer, feminist artist of Polish, Irish, German and Scottish descent (born USA, migrated to Australia 1996) best known for her inventive and political use of knitting. In addition to her solo practice, Just often works socially and collaboratively within communities to create large scale, public or textile-based art projects that tackle significant social issues including gender-based violence, reproductive freedom, LGBTQIA rights and political protest. Kate Just holds a PhD in Sculpture (Monash University), an MA (RMIT), and a BFA from University of Melbourne, where she is a Senior Lecturer in Art. She has exhibited extensively across Australia including at the NGA, ACCA, Heide, Gertrude Contemporary and CCP. Internationally she has exhibited at AIR Gallery (New York, USA), ICA (Richmond, Virginia, USA), the Rijswijk Museum (the Netherlands), Auckland Art Fair (NZ), Kunsthalle Krems (Austria), Sanskriti Gallery (India), Youkobo Artspace (Japan), Contextile Biennale (Portugal) and SUWON Museum of Art (South Korea). Just’s work is held in collections nationally and internationally including Just's work is held in public and private collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia, Artbank, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the City of Port Phillip, Wangaratta Art Gallery, Textile Art Museum of Australia (TAMA), The Sheila Foundation and Proclaim Management Collection.
Kate Just is represented by Hugo Michell Gallery in Adelaide.
