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Art
Seeing Double: Life-Size Crocheted Figures by Liisa Hietanen Imitate Fellow Villagers
Finnish artist Liisa Hietanen crochets and knits one-to-one imitations of her friends and fellow neighbors, accurately representing the subjects from their favorite outfits down to their furry companions. The series, Villagers, is a way for the artist to more deeply engage with those she often passes but might not interact with in her town of Hämeenkyrö, Finland.
“I meet my models in natural everyday situations,” she explains in an artist statement on her website. “The process of choosing a model is intuitive. The person depicted might be someone I meet in the library, in the locker room of the gym, or walking their dog on the way home. I don’t know most of my models beforehand but as the process goes on I get to know them.”
The slow, methodical style of her yarn-based craft works to counteract the pace of life, and also reflect the patience needed to get to know and understand another individual. The accuracy of her works to their origin subject is never the focus, but rather how she is able to get to know the person as she takes the time to build their double.
After completing each new work it is displayed somewhere public so the piece can engage in a deeper dialogue with the population of the town. Previous sculptures have been displayed at the local library, a flower shop, and a restaurant, however they also travel to contemporary art exhibitions such as the group exhibition From the Shadows of Night to the Brightness of Day at Makasiini Contemporary in Turku, Finland through April 7, 2019. Hietanen is currently working to complete a pair of new life-size sculptures—a local father and his four-year-old daughter. You can see other works included in her Villiagers series on her website and Instagram.
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Art
Crocheted Skeletal Figures Preserved Behind Glass by Caitlin McCormack
Caitlin McCormack (previously here and here) integrates mediums such as cotton string, vintage fabric, beaded objects, and other found materials into small crocheted skeletons. The textile works are presented as preserved objects like one might find in a curio cabinet. McCormack draws a connection between her skeletal subject matter and the viewer’s interiority, using fitted glass boxes and wooden frames as protection from the exterior world. Her fourth solo exhibition at Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia, See You All in There, opens on February 22 and runs through April 13, 2019. You can see more of the artist’s work on her website and Instagram.
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Art Craft
Crocheted Masks by threadstories Question How We Portray Ourselves Online
Irish visual artist threadstories crafts wearable textile masks that are often full-coverage, obscuring her face with layers of multi-colored yarn. The works are made with traditional techniques, and inspired by everything from the art of basketweaving to Francis Bacon’s distorted figural paintings. Each work begins with a crocheted balaclava which the artist uses as a base to attach each segment of material.
Conceptually, the masks question how we portray ourselves online and how this is influenced by a rapid decrease in personal privacy. “The masks deny the viewer the full story of who the sitter is, echoing the curated or false personas we portray and view online daily,” threadstories tells Colossal. “The masks are mutations of our private and public selves.”
You can see a short film that more deeply explores the process behind threadstories’s practice and masks in this film made by Sixbetween, and view more of her textile works on Instagram. (via Colossal Submissions)
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Craft Food
Crocheted Seafood and Knitted Loaves Top the Menu of Kate Jenkins’s Food-Focused Exhibitions
Photo by Emma Wood
Brighton, England-based textile artist Kate Jenkins has been recreating veggies, seafood, and other favorite foods in wool for the last 12 years. Jenkins got her start in knitwear design, but has begun to focus on knitting feasts rather than fashions. In 2015 Jenkins made her largest installation to date, crocheting dozens of sardines, mussels, clams, shrimp, prawns, lobsters, crabs and other delights from the sea for a full-size fish counter titled “Kate’s Place the Stitchmongers” in Alexander Palace in London. For inspiration Jenkins knits or crochets from life, always purchasing the food she plans on recreating for accurate scale and texture.
Jenkins is currently working on her follow-up exhibition to “Kate’s Place” titled “Kate’s Bakes” which will switch from seafood to wheat in a life-size bakery that will be exhibited at the Handmade Festival in Barcelona this May. She hopes to tour the piece around the world, stopping in London, Paris, and New York, and incorporate localized treats for each destination. If you like Jenkins’s immersive knitting and crocheting experiences you might also like Lucy Sparrow’s felted corner stores and bodegas which have popped up in both London and New York. You can see more of Jenkins’s crocheted treats on her website and Instagram. (via Atlas Obscura)
Photo by Emma Wood
Photo by Emma Wood
Photo by Emma Wood
Photo by Emma Wood
Photo by Emma Wood
Photo by Emma Wood
Photo by Emma Wood
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Art Craft
A Life-Size Skeleton and Organs Crocheted from Wool by Shanell Papp
Canadian artist Shanell Papp crochets forms associated with the human figure, notably crocheting a life-size skeleton stuffed with colorful removable organs. The work was created in 2005 from wool yarn, and includes everything from a soft crocheted heart to ten hollow phalanges. After working for four months on the skeleton, and four months on the organs, the final work was displayed on an actual mortuary gurney. If you are interested in more handmade anatomy, check out Dr. Karen Norberg’s scientifically-accurate soft sculpture of the human brain. (via designboom)
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Animation
Lost & Found: An Endearing Animated Film About the Selflessness of True Love
Lost & Found is an endearing stop motion film that chronicles a dramatic turning point in the sweet relationship between two crocheted animal toys. A foxy fox and smitten dinosaur have enjoyed many special memories in their adopted home of a Japanese restaurant’s lost and found bin. But when the fox topples into a fountain, the dinosaur must give his all to save her. The short film, directed by Andrew Goldsmith and Bradley Slabe and produced by Lucy J. Hayes, convincingly imagines the inner lives of its stuffed animal protagonists and uses the fragile nature of crochet as the crux of the storyline. Lost & Found has been widely lauded at film festivals since its debut this year. You can see behind the scenes of the film on the Lost & Found website.
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Art
Oversized Crocheted Doilies by Ashley V Blalock Climb Up Trees and Gallery Walls
Artist Ashley V Blalock crochets enormous red doilies that she then installs in site-specific configurations ranging from galleries to stairwells to trees outside. Her ongoing project, Keeping Up Appearances, began in 2011 and has been installed at museums, galleries, and gardens across the United States.
The artist describes the meaning behind Keeping Up Appearances: “Although non-threatening in a domestic setting, in the gallery and at this scale the [doilies] overtake the viewer and cover the walls… Inherent is a compulsion to arrange and place and decorate in order to control or influence a perceived outward appearance. The red color gives away the futility of such an act and hints at the unease that lurks below the surface of an obsessive need to control and arrange.”
Blalock is based in Southern California. She received a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees in sculpture and art history. You can see more of her installation work on her website.
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Editor's Picks: Street Art
Highlights below. For the full collection click here.