Friday 4 - Sunday 20 September 2026
Tuesday - Sunday // 10am - 4pm
The Nunnery Gallery
Knitting the Air presents a free exhibition exploring air pollution, place and community, created by 132 knitters from across Poplar, Bow and wider east London.
Credit: Rehan Jamil
Over two and a half years, more than 132 people spent thousands of hours knitting air pollution data about the air they breathe. This exhibition presents the result of their efforts: a 13-metre textile that traces air quality across a whole year.
The data comes from two Breathe London Communities sensors located in Poplar near the A12 and Blackwall Tunnel approach. By translating scientific data into something tangible and handmade, made by the communities this data affects, it invites people to see abstract numbers as something lived, breathed and felt.
Credit: Rakib Syed
This exhibition is also about voices. A new film brings together the knitters themselves, the residents who gave thousands of hours to make this work, sharing what it meant to knit data about the air in their neighbourhood, and what that process revealed about the place they call home.
Their reflections sit alongside more than 400 responses gathered from the wider community, capturing what air means to the people across east London. Their reflections bring everyday experiences of air pollution into focus, concerns for their health, hopes for change and a deep appreciation that clean air is fundamental to life.
The best visual representation of air pollution in our local area!
don't poloot the air. Includes a drawing of a young girl on a scooter.
I am concerned about our walk to school and the impact air quality has. Sad face.
My breathing / asthma has become worse since working in Tower Hamlets - to the point where I need an in inhaler (aged 50)
We all breathe air - it affects us all. Everyone deserves to breathe clean air no matter where they live or who they are. Love this knit!!
Clean air. Includes child's drawing of a train
A public programme of free creative workshops, events and talks accompanies the exhibition, inviting people to explore air, place and community, connect with the themes of the exhibition and share their perspectives.
Together, the textile, the objects, the film and the community voices make the invisible visible. Modern air pollution is easy to overlook when it cannot be seen. Here, it becomes a shared story and a living archive, told in wool and data, in hands and hours, in the words of the people who live with it every day.
Knitting the Air: The Exhibition is supported using public funding from Arts Council England and in partnership with The Aberfeldy Practice, Imperial College London, Bow Arts Trust and London College of Fashion.
More information:
Opening hours: Tues-Sun, 10am to 4pm
Address: Nunnery Gallery, 181 Bow Road, London, E3 2SJ
Nearest station(s): Bow Road (District and Hammersmith and City lines) is a 6-minute walk away, and Bow Church (DLR) is a 3-minute walk away.
Bus: 205, 25, 425, A8, D8, 108, 276, 488 and 8 all service the surrounding area.
Bike: Bicycle parking is located at Bow Church Station. The nearest Santander Cycles docking station is at Bow Church Station.
Access:
The Nunnery Gallery has step-free access throughout from street level, including to the accessible toilet, and is service animal friendly. This venue does not have a hearing loop system. Accessible parking is not available on-site but blue badge parking can be found 500m away on Fairfield Road.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility at this event or would like to make us aware of any access requirements that you have in advance of attending, please email nunnery@bowarts.com