What does it mean to feel something in your gut? At Hazelhurst Arts Centre visitors can find out in an unexpected way through Gut Feelings: Crafting gut–brain connections. This exhibition wasn’t just about looking at art on the wall—it was about slowing down, picking up yarn, and stitching your way into the science of the gut and its remarkable connection to the brain.
The launch of Gut Feelings: Crafting gut–brain connections was a wonderful way to wrap up Natonal Science Week 2025. The final exhibiton looks amazing and was a truely collaborative effort.
The project began as a spark of curiosity shared by artists Pat Pillai, Rita Pearce and Mary Hayman, who have a long history of blending craft with neuroscience. Building on their earlier Neural Knitworks project, which invited people to knit neurons and talk about brain health, they turned their attention to the hidden world inside us: the gut microbiome. They asked a big question—what if we could make the invisible world of gut bacteria and cells visible, tangible, and even cuddly?
The idea took root during National Science Week in 2024, when the team launched the project with a day of hands-on craft and lively talks from researchers like Professor Georgina Hold and Dr Erin Shanahan. Surrounded by crocheted microbes and soft-sculpture villi, the science of digestion and mental health became something you could feel between your fingers.
From there, the project grew in the most human way possible – through community contributions. Patterns were shared so that anyone could knit, crochet, or even no-knit microbes and gut cells. People sent in granny squares, dropped off yarn, or came along to help stitch together the evolving soft-sculpture. Over months, the collection swelled with colour, texture and personality, a patchwork representation of the invisible ecosystem within us all.
The exhibition was opened today in the Broadhurst Gallery at Hazelhurst Arts Centre. The gallery is filled with playful and inviting fibre forms – giant villi (over 5000), woolly microbes, stitched epithelium – assembled from hundreds of community-made pieces. Walking into the space felt a little like stepping inside a giant gut, but instead of being clinical or confronting, it was warm, whimsical and oddly comforting.
What makes Gut Feelings so powerful is the way it merges science, art and community. The science is real and rigorous—our gut microbiome really does shape our physical and mental health—but the art invites us to approach it gently, with curiosity and imagination. And the community makes it all possible. Every stitch is a reminder of the people who contributed, of the conversations shared, and of the connections made along the way.
Ultimately, Gut Feelings is about more than microbes. It’s about connection – between gut and brain, between art and science, and between people who gathered to create something bigger than themselves. In a time when everything moves so quickly, this project invited everyone to slow down, stitch by stitch, and discover just how much wisdom there really is in listening to your gut.
What does it mean to feel something in your gut? At Hazelhurst Arts Centre visitors can find out in an unexpected way through Gut Feelings: Crafting gut–brain connections. This exhibition wasn’t just about looking at art on the wall—it was about slowing down, picking up yarn, and stitching your way into the science of the gut and its remarkable connection to the brain.
The launch of Gut Feelings: Crafting gut–brain connections was a wonderful way to wrap up Natonal Science Week 2025. The final exhibiton looks amazing and was a truely collaborative effort.
The project began as a spark of curiosity shared by artists Pat Pillai, Rita Pearce and Mary Hayman, who have a long history of blending craft with neuroscience. Building on their earlier Neural Knitworks project, which invited people to knit neurons and talk about brain health, they turned their attention to the hidden world inside us: the gut microbiome. They asked a big question—what if we could make the invisible world of gut bacteria and cells visible, tangible, and even cuddly?
The idea took root during National Science Week in 2024, when the team launched the project with a day of hands-on craft and lively talks from researchers like Professor Georgina Hold and Dr Erin Shanahan. Surrounded by crocheted microbes and soft-sculpture villi, the science of digestion and mental health became something you could feel between your fingers.
From there, the project grew in the most human way possible – through community contributions. Patterns were shared so that anyone could knit, crochet, or even no-knit microbes and gut cells. People sent in granny squares, dropped off yarn, or came along to help stitch together the evolving soft-sculpture. Over months, the collection swelled with colour, texture and personality, a patchwork representation of the invisible ecosystem within us all.
The exhibition was opened today in the Broadhurst Gallery at Hazelhurst Arts Centre. The gallery is filled with playful and inviting fibre forms – giant villi (over 5000), woolly microbes, stitched epithelium – assembled from hundreds of community-made pieces. Walking into the space felt a little like stepping inside a giant gut, but instead of being clinical or confronting, it was warm, whimsical and oddly comforting.
What makes Gut Feelings so powerful is the way it merges science, art and community. The science is real and rigorous—our gut microbiome really does shape our physical and mental health—but the art invites us to approach it gently, with curiosity and imagination. And the community makes it all possible. Every stitch is a reminder of the people who contributed, of the conversations shared, and of the connections made along the way.
Ultimately, Gut Feelings is about more than microbes. It’s about connection – between gut and brain, between art and science, and between people who gathered to create something bigger than themselves. In a time when everything moves so quickly, this project invited everyone to slow down, stitch by stitch, and discover just how much wisdom there really is in listening to your gut.
Share this: