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The Knitted Mile

The Knitted Mile by Robyn Mile. Something interesting about the idea of deliberate and slow labour and what it means as a process. Long-term projects always make me wish for more time.

The Knitted Mile was commissioned as part of an exhibition titled Gestures of Resistance: Craft and The Politics of Slowness (curated by Shannon Stratton and Judith Leeman) that happened in conjunction with the College Art Association 2008 conference in Dallas, TX.

Ninety knitters from around North America contributed pieces of TKM. Photographs of each knitter working on their section were included as part of the piece when it was removed from the road and installed in the gallery, Grey Matter.

TKM also was exhibited at PS.122 as part of the exhibition Yarn Theory, curated by Martha Lewis.

You should also check out some of Robyn’s other huge works.

via Saint Flamingo’s twitter

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Fence Love

fence love

I’m sure there will never be a lack of fence-related interventions, but this one in particular seemed worth posting. Small and simple, but the technique is so obvious and effective (if likely slow-going), I had to add it to our research archives.

[via Radical Cross Stitch]

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Lisa Anne Auerbach

Lisa Anne Auerbach

Lisa Anne Auerbach came to Windsor and did an artist talk, almost a couple years ago now. I remember in particular, her slide that stood in for her graduate work—it was just a blank slide, I chuckled and kind of shivered. Beyond that, I can’t remember a lot of her presentation, other than she also worked at a planetarium at some point, and published zines, but something about her practice stuck with me.

Her work that seems to make the rounds most often is pictured above—sweaters with (mostly) political messaging on them. Using a computer-controlled knitting machine, she often makes sweaters and matching skirts and then poses in them. The messages are somewhat immediate responses to current cultural and political climates, and it might be the immediacy of the response that I enjoy so much; well, the immediacy and the text.

Also, I thought it might be a good reference for the fun folks over at CNAP.

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Planters Nearing Completion

making planters

The Magnetic Planters project continues. With Michelle and Danielle away this week, the rest of Broken City Lab had to relearn the process of making paper pulp. It was a good night, though we’re hoping to get this project finished in the next week or so. As Intersession begins, we’ll be shifting our Office Hours to another yet-to-be-determined day, and it might even be biweekly until July. We’ll keep you posted.

Continue reading “Planters Nearing Completion”

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Knitta Please

Knitta's work in France

Knitta formed in 2005 out of frustration of unfinished knitting projects sitting around the house. Instead of trying to finish sweaters and mittens, they decided to go out and bomb the city’s infrastructure (and sometimes garbage) with yarn, starting with their hometown of Houston, Texas and eventually tagging the Great Wall of China. Above you can see a project they did in France. They’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this project, though things seem to have slowed over the last year.

Anyways, it reminded me of that idea Michelle brought up about dressing up infrastructure in the city for Halloween.

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Craft Work – Radical Craftivism in Melbourne

Radical Cross Stitch, Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle

Exactly.

In Melbourne, Australia, there is a “ton of land” sitting vacant, while many young people have no place to live. The Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle decided to comment on the situation by cross-stitching “I wanna live here” on the fence containing the land being hoarded by developers. They also planted some vegetable and flower seeds around the area and spent about 3 hours on this intervention.

Very poignant statement and addressing issues local to them = really, really good. Also, exciting to see a way to tackle the fence that doesn’t have to involve leaving plastic cups (biodegradable or not) or other refuse in a neighbourhood to make a point.

[via]