Want to step inside a woolly walk-in gut and get up close with knitted microbes? See what gives you butterflies in the stomach? Meet Iris the Virus and Bob the Bacilli surrounded by thousands of hand knitted villi, the finger- like projections in your gut that give you an internal Mexican wave when you eat. You will also see a banquet of knitted food, a life size crocheted figure showing the longest nerve in the body, sushi the size of your little fingernail, and images as seen under the microscope side by side with versions that artists have reimagined as art. Come along, find out more about the connection between the gut, the brain and trillions of microbes that live within us and how they work together.

In 2024 artists Pat Pillai, Rita Pearce (from Neural Knitworks) and artist and educator Mary Hayman decided to take a deep dive into the connection between mental health and wellbeing and gut health and invited the community to join them. For the past 12 months participants have used scientifically informed patterns to knit, crochet, weave and stitch over 4000 gut villi, 450 gut epithelial cells and hundreds of colourful microbes, often while engaging with scientific researchers at crafting sessions and sometimes in coffee shops, on the train, or even at the hairdressers. Conversations on gut health were interspersed with finding solutions to building a demountable walk-in gut and other large soft sculptural installations. The resulting Gut Feelings Exhibition will immerse viewers in a playful yet serious exploration of the gut-brain axis and the gut microbiome.