Freddie Robins 'Apotropaic': The Power of the Soft Stuff
At first glance, Freddie Robins’ "Apotropaic", on view at the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, feels like a spell woven from yarn, humour, and unease. The term “apotropaic,” derived from the Greek meaning “to turn away from,” refers to objects believed to ward off evil—a fitting metaphor for Robins’ practice, which entwines the protective, the domestic, and the subversive.
Farmmage, Freddie Robins.
Curated by Stephanie Snyder and organised by Kris Cohen, this is Robins’ first solo exhibition in the United States and a major moment for a textile artist who has spent three decades reshaping how we perceive knitting. Professor of Textiles at the Royal College of Art in London, Robins came of age in the aftermath of Punk and second-wave feminism, alongside figures like Sarah Lucas and Grayson Perry. Her works are cheeky, unsettling, and politically charged, challenging notions of femininity and “women’s work.” Titles such as "Bad Mother" and "Craft Kills" hint at her lifelong rebellion against the sentimentality often associated with craft.
Freddie Robins Who’s Scared, 2025, Machine-knit tapestry, wool.
In Apotropaic, Robins stitches together the material and metaphysical. Her knitted sculptures include horses with stone heads, gloves pinned to cardboard, and wall hangings that ask “Who’s scared of the soft stuff?”. They invite viewers to consider the dualities within softness: protection and vulnerability, nurture and resistance. Three small equine figures, knitted from mohair and crowned with rocks, possess a melancholy tenderness reminiscent of childhood toys. Yet their hybrid forms, both animate and inanimate, speak to the ways we project care, grief, and fear onto material things.
Photographic mural of Freddie Robins’ home studio, 2025.
Across the gallery, talismanic assemblages of found objects such as old toys, dolls, amulets, office supplies form what Robins calls her “internal alleyway.” This accumulation mirrors ancient practices of embedding protective charms within homes, from Egyptian Eyes of Horus to bundles hidden beneath English floorboards. Robins’ studio, recreated in a photographic mural, hums with this same energy: a sanctuary of curiosities and protective spirits.
Lead: Image detail of Horses 1-3, 2023, Stone, mohair. Freddie Robins.
“Knitting is my way of interpreting and coming to terms with the world that I inhabit,” Robins explains. “It sits between my internal world and the physical world, like a form of comfort—or rather, discomfort.” This tension animates Apotropaic. Her stitches don’t soothe; they provoke. Each loop of yarn becomes both a gesture of care and an act of defiance against conformity, gender norms, and capitalist ideals of taste.
Ultimately, in Apotropaic, Robins transforms the softest materials into agents of power, questioning what it means to feel safe, to create, and to resist. Her work reminds us that in a world so often hardened by indifference, softness itself can be radical.
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Further Information:
Freddie Robins: Apotropaic runs from September 13 to December 18, 2025, at the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, Oregon.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Freddie Robins, Plastic (is Fantastic), 2025, Cardboard, reclaimed gloves, plastic knitting needles, dressmaking pins.
Lead: Image detail of Horses 1-3, 2023, Stone, mohair. Freddie Robins.
All further images as credited in photo captions.