Tracey Emin
Female artists found talents or began works in their middle ages.
Louis Bourgeois
These Artists Are Giving Knitting a Place in Art History – Artsy
by Alexxa Gotthardt
1월 25, 2017
Subversive knitting. Radical crocheting. These phrases may sound contradictory, but marrying “craft” to “cool” has become commonplace in the last decade, as once-dowdy domestic hobbies have metamorphosed into trendy pastimes for the creative set. (Think knitting-focused Instagram accounts that draw hundreds of thousands of followers, and viral articles featuring knitted pajamas for chilly elephants.) In this atmosphere, the art world, too, has seen an uptick in the use of knitting and crocheting as a medium. But this is by no means a new phenomenon among artists.
As early as the 1970s and ’80s, artists like Louise Bourgeois, Faith Wilding, and Rosemarie Trockel employed knitting and crocheting as both a material and a feminist tool, connecting the history of craft as “women’s work” to that of repressive domesticity. Since then, countless contemporary artists have built on the work of these feminist pioneers, using knitting and crocheting to mine a wide range of themes. Below, we highlight eight creatives that prove knitting and crocheting can be boundary-pushing, politically charged mediums.
Chiharu Shiota
Uncertain Journey: A Network of Tangled Red Yarn on Skeletal Boats | ALK3R (wordpress.com)
Titled Uncertain Journey, the artwork envelopes the viewer by creating a blood-red canopy reminiscent of a neural network that meanders in every direction. The piece is a continuation of Shiota’s work with yarn for the 56th Venice Art Biennale. Uncertain Journey will be on view starting September 17 through November 12, 2016.
Beili Liu
Suspended Red Thread Coils Reflect the Idea of Soulmates (mymodernmet.com)
Pinar Noorata is the Managing Editor at My Modern Met.
hat appears to be a beautiful wafting sea of red discs is artist Beili Liu’s visual interpretation of an ancient Chinese legend involving red thread. The belief behind the mythical tale of the “red string of fate” is similar to the western idea of soulmates. It suggests that, upon birth, every person is tied to another with an invisible red thread, signifying the individual they are destined to be with. The twine may stretch and bend, but it can never be broken to deter their fated encounter.
Liu’s Lure series presents a massive site-specific installation piece featuring countless suspended, red coils of thread, each of which ranges from two to five inches in diameter. Each ring of tightly wound thread is connected to another one, somewhere in the space. The coupled pairs are made of the same piece of string so as to reflect the idea behind the legend. The discs are suspended by a centrally inserted sewing needle, compressed by the spiraling coils of thread, allowing them to sway and move somewhat freely in reaction to a breeze. Through this movement the connecting strings have the ability to become entwined with others, much like the relationships that serve as obstacles for the destined one.
Rima Day
Fiber Artist | Rima Day (rimadayart.com)
Fiber artist decorates canvas books with symbolic red thread | 711Web
kimsooja
Haegue Yang
These Artists Are Giving Knitting a Place in Art History – Artsy
by Alexxa Gotthardt
1월 25, 2017
Yang builds her mesmerizing, delightfully absurd sculptures from everyday objects ranging from frosted lightbulbs to hair rollers to fake plants to hand-knitted cosies. While not all of her works incorporate knitted and crocheted elements, allusions to craft and homemade trinkets appear across her oeuvre. When paired with industrial materials and commercial products like clothing racks, Venetian blinds, and canned goods, they become icons for contradictory feelings of belonging and alienation, safety and suffocation that domestic life can inspire. These are dichotomies with which Yang, who splits her time between Seoul and Berlin, is intimately familiar, and they emerge in big, immersive works like Sallim (2009), an abstract reimagining of her Berlin kitchen, and Cup Cosies (2011), as well as a cohort of small plastic cups blanketed with knitted covers.
Olek (Agata Oleksiak)
These Artists Are Giving Knitting a Place in Art History – Artsy
by Alexxa Gotthardt
1월 25, 2017
The Polish, New York-based artist, who goes simply by Olek, has crocheted potent political messages—both overt and subliminal—across city streets since 2002. To underline the importance of expression and play, no matter the environment, she has covered bicycles and carousels in hand-crocheted, neon-hued sheaths, as well as dressing people up in her textiles. She also uses her work to communicate urgent social issues, from free speech to refugee relief to women’s rights. Case in point: during last year’s election cycle, she crocheted a 16-by-46-foot banner, which was tacked to a New Jersey highway billboard, depicting Hillary Clinton’s face and the candidate’s viral hashtag #imwithher. In the last month, she’s also created anti-racism and feminist messages on public walls (a quote from Martin Luther King Junior in London’s Shoreditch neighborhood) and on protest signs (“Love Always Wins” at the Women’s March on Washington)—all with her trademark threads.
THE UNUSUAL ART OF KNITTING BY OLEK (fashion-beyond-fashion.com)