Monday, November 6, 2006
... but is it Art?
There’s a recurring controversy about whether knitting qualifies as craft or art. I think you can’t take it out of the application.
As a medium, I adore knitting most basically because I am consistently amazed at the infinite number of ways that a one-dimensional object – the yarn – can be manipulated by one simple gesture – the knit stitch – which itself can be manipulated and combined ad infinitum to create a three-dimensional object of any size, shape, or texture. The ever unfolding possibilities will never stop thrilling and captivating me.
For me, it lies beyond sewing in fashion design, which I also studied when I was younger. In sewing, you’re taking a two-dimensional object - the fabric - and creating a three-dimensional object from it; but the cutting and piecing somehow leaves me less intrigued. In fact, I’d venture to say that once I mastered the concepts and ability, it actually became a turn-off. But knitting ... the opportunities just never stop.
Anyway, back to the original question - is it craft or art? I like to take the quote by St. Francis of Assisi -- “"He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist." -- and add a different middle-ground. I think the work of the hands is labor, the work of the hands and head can be craft, but the work of an artisan takes craft and adds not just intellect but technique - and doesn’t that take heart in commitment and love for the craft? But artisanship is still not yet art. For it to become art, it must add the mouth - it must say something. It doesn’t have to say anything profound, but it must speak to something, other than just looking pretty or looking ugly or looking crazy. Depending on their relationship to their environment, things that look pretty or ugly or crazy can be saying something, but they do - say something, that is. They don’t just sit there being fabulous, like Paris Hilton. They are also expressive and significant.
One of my favorite artists who uses the knitting medium is Katharine Cobey, and this is my favorite of her works:
It’s called “A Portrait of Alzheimer’s.” See how it hangs perfectly on the hanger, but spills out in unravelled pools on the floor? This is such a poignant piece of work.
Or this:
“Mirage,” a wedding dress knitted from white plastic trash-can bags. To me, this says so much more than, “look what cool thing I can knit with an unexpected object.” As Melanie Falick pointed out in her stunning coffee-table book, Knitting in America, this is also a poignant statement about the trivializing of women through their roles in present-day domestic partnership, the way we try to “dress up” the ceremony that leads them to this lowering of their lives. Not to mention the environmentalist statement ... but for a direct environmentalist statement, click-on-the-pic to see her other work titled, blatantly, “Slick.”
Am I sounding too “art-school” for you? Too “femin-nazi?” Alright, I apologize, I’ll stop now and show you something fun - a gang of knitted-graffiti artists. And, thanks to the internet, the pink tank cozy is now legendary.
And, no, I am not linking to the guy who knitted an American flag with telephone poles and cranes. If he doesn’t know why, then my friend Femiknit Mafia does. Cosa Nostra, bay-bee!
My dream is to move from “artisan” to “artist,” to actually saying something with my knitting. I fear I don’t have the imagination for it. How do you practice having an imagination? How can I learn how to connect the emotional and political parts of my brain with the creative and technical parts? (is this another ADHD thing they never told me about?) *grrrrrrr*
Oh, and one more, just because so touches me:
Robyn Love’s “It's Cold Outside: Cozy for Richard Noseworthy, Died 1965, Pouch Cove, Newfoundland.”
Now, that’s quintessential knitted love.
Memorials/The Doughboy - Robyn Love
