Knitting has always played an inherent role in my past, not only in my childhood but in my teens, married life and motherhood. The resurgence of knitting today in contemporary art appears not to be the same as the traditional motivations that shaped the popularity of knitting in the past. With new innovated technology such as the knitting machine and the loss of the woman staying at home, the role model relishing in domesticity associated with the craft, the popular pastime of making those irritating socks or itchy mohair jumpers has long gone.Now, I believe knitting can be seen as a significant tool for the building of our thinking and making today with meanings and aims that breach far outside the barrier of the domestic or utilitarian.
Metaphorically, my intention has been to use my needles as pens or pencils to communicate a message from the humble strand of wool into a 3 Dimensional sculptural form from an original and personal textile pertaining to all my faults and idiosyncrasies.
During my Art 246 Module, Methodology of Fine Art, I have endeavoured to question, 'Can art be re-thought to explore the liberation of patternization, and project it past the knotted loops and threads, to dismantle the narrow and blinkered responses that the discipline commonly encounters?'
The concept of knitting , linked to narrative story-telling is part of our history that relates to a socialization or communication, between friends and families, who would 'sit and knit', to monitor the time their husbands went to work. Now I believe knitting has transcended into a contemporary, refreshing entity to communicate in a metaphorical flow between hands, needles and wool.Women can now pick up their needles, cast on and begin weaving a fabric that composes of contemporary femininity.
My recent work has challenged the thesis of how a crocheted blanket, associated with femininity and domesticity can be totally dislocated when displaced in a rural setting-a tree trunk, to create an art of intervention or a force to be reckoned with.Therefore I have realized how context, form or site can disturb interpretations.
I have journeyed or knitted through my second year of Fine Art, Part-time, open to all routes or patterns of work related to my practice. I have enjoyed exploring sites ,new contemporary knitting artists, and have sometimes become stuck or 'knotted' in my work. At last I am ready to 'move house', wool ,needles and 1980, Manual Bond knitting machine into a new 'Knitted World'. An exciting, refreshing world within contemporary Fine Art, that will continue to expand in ideas that will be astute in combining a 2D fabric with a 3D form. My intention is to 'knit' a strong metaphorical building of work; a hybrid construction which can be communicated into any shape or form.Isn't it phenomenal that all of this creativity, can be traced by an underlying constant-the humble knitted loop!
