Interview with an exhibition guide

By: Suzan Russeler

Lately I talked with my colleague Esther van den Borne, who is working as a designer and also as a guide in our museum. Esther was very enthusiastic about Knitted Worlds and her experience with groups.

`I´m happy with this exhibition because it challenges people and triggers them to think. Mostly I give guided tours to high school and art students, or to groups with some special interest. That means that people are reasonably well informed about the subject matter. When you enter the exhibition hall straight ahead you see the artworks of ´knit´ pioneers like Rosemarie Trockel and Elaine Reichek. Some of those works aren´t that easy to read. But, luckily right across of these works there is this very illustrative film of Dave Cole, called The Knitting Machine.

Two excavators, holding enormous knitting needles, move back and forth while the artist himself puts some XL yarn in a loop around the needles, thus knitting the American flag. People like watching this film and immediately understand the interrelation between art and knitting. So that blow up of the act of knitting by Dave Cole is a very good point of reference for other more subtle art works.
This start up of my tour also offers the opportunity to switch from the art aspect to more technical aspects of knitting, material and texture depending on the interest of the group.

The works of Jimini Hignett and Jayne Parker some visitors, mainly elderly or youngsters, experience as quite confronting.

However if you tell them that the works are an artistic reaction on social and artistic issues people can deal with it, discuss it. The funny thing is that they seem to feel relieved they aren´t expected to appreciate the works in terms of beauty.


Photo´s: Joep Vogels (Audax Textielmuseum Tilburg)

The Art of Knitting : inspirational stitches, textures and surfaces

By: Jantiene van Elk

Francoise Tellier Loumagne has taught textile and knit design for more than thirty years. With this experience, she made a series of beautiful The Art of textile books. The books are an inspiration to professional textile designers and students and to anyone working with or with an interest in textiles.

About the The Art of Knitting :

"(...) I decided to create a book that will try to change the way in which knitted textiles are perceived, and so encourage readers to personally express themselves. I hope it will be a work that builds a bridge between technicians and vice versa, and that makes communication more 'objective' and more creative; a clear source of information that allows new pathways of innovation to be discovered." (from the Introduction by Francoise Tellier-Loumagne)

In the book you can find patterns for industrial and domestic knitting machines, and for hand knitting. The techniques for each are explained. Simple knits, jacquards, fine jersey knits, interlock, open work and many other fabric types are explained. Inspiration for the author is the natural world and one´s personal surroundings. The sources of inspiration and the fabrics are presented next to each other.

The Art of Knitting : inspirational stitches, textures and surfaces / Francoise Tellier-Loumagne. - London : Thames & Hudson, 2005.

Francoise Tellier-Loumagne´s other books (The Art of Embroidery and The Art of Felt) are also available in the Textile Museum´s library.

Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting

By: Jantiene van Elk

In 2007 the exhibition Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting was held in the Museum of arts & Design in New York. It was curated by David Revere McFadden. Now, it´s a travelling exhibition (currently not on show). On the website of the exhibition you can find more information.

The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue, which you can find in the textile museum´s library.

Photo: www.amazon.com

About the Avatar works

By: Chrystl Rijkeboer

Balaclava’s knitted from human hair & prints on Alumount 80x80 cm.
2006

Origin: Avatar
In Hindu (Sanskrit) philosophy, an avatar, avatara or avatarim most commonly refers to the incarnation.

Today: Avatar
Within the virtual world, in which people meet nowadays, one assumes a certain identity through a so-called avatar. This is an icon or photo, which accompanies the communication.

After the work ‘Stolen Identity’ it was a great pleasure for me to find the first balaclava (Avatar-Martine) in the magazine ‘Mc Call’s Needlework & Crafts’ from 1965. I was pleased to find this balaclava in an American magazine. See the post by Lise Lefebvre for pictures of the balaclavas in this magazine.

Today such a cap would be impossible in the Western world. Balaclavas are so emotionally charged, that ideas of an ordinary cap, which is funny and protects against cold, is not from this age anymore. Balaclava’s have a very different impact nowadays. The balaclava is a signal for society: ‘Watch out! Terrorism! and Danger!’

The other 'Avatar' items are made by own design. The faces on the balaclavas are very contemporary: Identity and the fear of loosing it, but also possibilities of choosing new / different identities in the digital world are nowadays issues.

The series portraits named Avatar show people wearing balaclavas made out of human hair. An estranged image in which the identity of the one becomes veiled with the hair of an other.
All models got a preference choice which Avatar to wear. Posing with their 'balaclava type' a surprising inner picture of the models arise.

Photo: Stolen Identity-family
Photo: Cover Mc Call’s Needlework & Crafts 1965
Photo: Avatar –Martine

Grannittin

By: Harco Rutgers

Grannittin is originally a live performance by Robert Witt in collaboration with ‘Mevrouw de Vries’, a knitted art project initiated by visual artist Anne Reijse. Witt's performance consisted of the live manipulation of sounds emitted from contact microphones attached to the knitting needles of the knitting ladies present at the opening of a ‘Mevrouw de Vries’ exhibition.
Robert Witt decided to release his recorded performance through esc.rec., a small record label and platform for adventurous music. Together they figured it could also be interesting to see what other artists would do with the same source material; the sound of knitting needles. Thus esc.rec. selected and invited artists to remix knitting sound as recorded by Robert Witt. 15 different artists (seasoned electronica pioneers and relative newcomers alike) came up with their own interpretations, enough to fill two cd's!

Some artists use the sounds of knitting needles as sole audio source for their piece, others incorporate them in their music. Some artists also recorded additional sources, like Gluid who recorded an elderly lady explaining the simple mechanics of knitting to all of us (in Dutch dialect).

All results are superb listening experiences. The remixes vary from abstract experiments and (complex) structures to warm electronics, (minimal) techno and tasty rhythms.

Grannittin was released as a double cd-r in a unique package, handmade with recycled knitted fabrics. You can listen to Grannittin in the Knitted Worlds exhibition. You can order Grannittin here.

Robert Witt - Grannittin (live in Het Langhuis) (mp3)
http://www.escrec.com/robertwitt/grannittin.mp3

"GAME ON" deel 2

By: Anne Reijse

Last (museum)weekend there were many knitters at the project "GAME ON" in the Textielmuseum. All kinds of people were knitting like crazy, as if they never did anything else before. There was a very nice atmosphere among the knitters.

Talented women were knitting like a fast train. How they did it , I don’t know. They were very, very fast. All kinds of people who never knitted before were trying to knit.

One game is ready now. Three must yet be finished, but soon you can see the small pieces and parts that are knitted. These small pieces and parts must be joined. Then you can see the games coming together.

"GAME ON" is growing in the right direction. We still need knitters!

Rebellious knitting

By: Jimini Hignett

Odd that knitting has such a persistent association with staidness and primness. For me it’s always been something to associate with rebellion. But I notice that if you’re obviously not one of those prim, staid knitters, then people tend to react as if it’s some sort of threat. To their dignity if nothing else.

My mother knitted in the car – this way she didn’t have to get wound up if there was a red light. Whoever sat next to her had the job of warning her just before the light turned green. Other drivers always looked on in disgust and irritation, presuming that she was going to hold up the traffic, so we made a sport of shooting off the minute the light changed – neah neah!

At school we got knitting – with pink wool – yuk, girls’ colour! An oven-cloth. An oven-cloth for Chris sake, we were 7 years old - ridiculous. An oven-cloth from wool. I sabotaged as much as I could, and despite being a perfectly good knitter I managed to produce the lumpiest, squintest, least attractive oven-cloth of the whole class. At home, I made sure it was used to pick up a too-hot pan so that it scorched and the wool turned brown and slowly unravelled.

At secondary school we had uniforms, awful, even your socks had to be regulation colour – grey, fawn, navy-blue, white or maroon. I hated it. And it was dead boring, so I knitted socks, under my desk. But I’d get caught all the time and my knitting would be confiscated. At one point every teacher had a half-finished sock of mine in their drawer. But still I finished them – striped, in the colours grey, fawn, navy-blue, white and maroon. The English teacher sent me out to the corridor – for being an eyesore.

Knitting was a way to take control of your own appearance, to escape from the dreadful fashion of the time – I knitted jumpers from pictures of everything I loved.

Once in New York, in that famous jazz café where Woody Allen was said to play, I was knitting a plate of macaroni with sauce for the owner of an Italian restaurant whose birthday it was. The maître d’ told me I had to stop – no knitting at the bar. But the jazz singer whose band it was, lied to him that I was Britain’s foremost soft sculptress, so I got to keep knitting – neah neah!

Human identity, or how we see ourselves, forms a central theme in Chrystl Rijkeboer’s work.

By: Chrystl Rijkeboer

I am trained as an autonomous visual artist. Techniques are subordinate to the work. I try to learn skills, which I need to give my work the expressiveness it needs.
Ive been working with the material 'human hair' for many years. With this material I learned crafts like: felting, spinning, crocheting and knitting. Each time I try to find the limits in possibilities between the material and my ‘story’.

Striking is after years of incomprehension about my way of work, nowadays my work and craft-work in generally is very contemporary. I do believe that by our Western consumer society, products which are made with love, attention and craft skills, are highly appreciated.

The 3 dimensional works, which I spin, knit or crochet, are also processed into photographic- or video works and performances. I feel that works are "finished" after they are linked to the human again. For me it is of great importance to reunite the work on the human level again.

Foto’s: ‘She only wanted a boy’ & Twins_brown’

KNIT KNIT : profiles + projects from knitting´s new wave

By: Jantiene van Elk

All over North America and Europe, a brand-new generation has taken up knitting - and is transforming the venerable needlecraft by blurring the boundary between craft and art. (...)

Five years ago, Sabina Gschwandter founded a zine to tackle the blurry edge between craft and fine art to chroncile the trend. Now, her book KnitKnit brings together profiles of 27 of the most talented artist-crafters knitting today. But KnitKnit does more than just document their ingenious creations. Each of the profiled knitters has contributed a project - a kimono-style sweater, a pair of high-heeled boots, a hobo-style shoulder bag, geodesic-patterned cap, even a teddy bear knit from fiberglass insulation - meant to inspire you and follow your creative path (text from book jacket)

The weblog we-make-money-not-art wrote a review.

Knit knit : profiles + projects from knitting´s new wave / Sabina Gschwandtner. - New York : Craft / a Melanie Falick Book, 2007. 173 p. : ill.
ISBN: 978-1-58479-631-2

“GAME ON”

By Anne Reijse, artist



The knitting project “GAME ON” started!

Visitors are knitting the elements of a set, that finally will end up in a knitted computergame.

Do you remember the computer heroes from a while ago…..Pacman, Donkey Kong, Space invader an Mario? These heroes have to be knit before you can play the game.

There is a lot of work to be done…. Everyone is welcome to knit the game. The more is knitted the sooner you can play the GAME. We need all hands, even when you have never knitted in your live before…this project gives you an opportunity to be a great knitter!! If you are already a knitter, you are also very welcome to enjoy this knitting project! When all the pieces of the project are knitted you can start playing the GAME.

The hole set up of this project consists of four different games children (or adults) can play. Imagine playing with a knitted Maria hero in a computergame!!

Let the GAME start to grow!!

Desiree de Baar - Fragment of a building #1

By Desiree de Baar, participant KNITTED WORLDS exhibition, written the week before the opening

The work is nearly finished, I just have to sew the hinges on. I’m quite thrilled. The size and monumental character of the work is a new step in my work. It was hard work.

This new work is a mockup of the building where I have my studio. It is in an old school from the beginning of the last century in Rotterdam. According to Wikipedia a mockup is a “full-size non-functional model of a structure or device, used for teaching, demonstration, testing a design and promotion”. I did it the other way around. I made it as a reconstruction of an everyday-life site. These three doors used to enclose toilets. Now two of them serve as closets. I love the repetition of the form by the three doors. By isolating them into one image, I put the emphasis on the sculptural qualities of my daily environment. The monochrome colour and material amplify this.

A fragment of a hallway, that I have passed through so many times. Often without paying thís much attention. Instead of using a method like casting, I reconstructed it by knitting. It is a slow and intense technique. This technique, with its repetitive movements, fits the way I want to pay attention to ordinary things. To make a pattern for the knitting I have to measure every detail and listel and calculate the stitches. I like this mathematical aspect of the knitting. Through the knitting and the process involved I put the focus on the details, showing a poetic site of ordinary things.

You are most welcome to visit me on my website to see more of my work and earlier installations involving knitting-work.