Yarnbombing: A Yarnbombed Tank and The Destruction of Dresden

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This Leopard 1 tank was yarnbombed at The Military Museum in Dresden on the anniversary of the destruction of Dresden in World War 11. Feb 13 2013

The Story

This yarnbombed tank was created by Kristina Kromer and Barbara Niklas working with the studio group ” Louise Combined seam eV “. There were 60 people knitting and crocheting for 6 months , from Sept 2012 to Feb 2013, meeting every Tuesday and Wednesday. They eventually produced 36 kg of material. The group included survivors of the firebombing and young people. Originally the plan was to cover a Russian tank but this met with protest so it was decided to yarnbomb The Leopard 1 . It will be up indefinitely.

We humans try to manage catastrophe and suffering in many ways. Artists use their imaginations to try and bring meaning and healing to experiences that injure us.  I mostly know about the destruction of Dresden from Kurt Vonneget’s experience  in his book ” Slaughterhouse 5 ”

I’m trying to imagine a survivor of the bombing sitting with a group of knitters making this tank yarnbomb . I think it is affirmation of our constant efforts to bring comfort, creation and love to the flow of life and time.

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March 12, 2013March 12, 2013 by streetcolor Categories: International yarnbombing, UncategorizedTags: art, cities, crocheting, knitting, tanks, yarnbombed tank, yarnbombing, yarnbombing in Dresden Leave a comment

Yarnbombing And Doing Good

This jacaranda tree outside of Durban , South Africa was yarnbombed by Woza Moya crafters to mark World Aids Day Dec 4 2012 . Photo by Adrian Boule

Woza Moya crafters are woman who work along with the Hillcrest Aids Centre in South Africa to raise funds to care for those with AIDS . Usually these woman make bead work  and each of them supports around 10 family members . For this tree the Hillcrest Center raised special funds to pay them to crochet thousands of crocheted squares so they could yarnbomb .        more here

This is very moving to me . First – it’s a very beautiful yarnbombed tree , the crocheting is so confident and lavish .  Second – I was sitting in Berkeley Ca . and saw a picture of this tree in South Africa a day after it went up and was in touch with Paula Thomson who organized this yarnbombing with in 20 hours . This is a very wonderful aspect of social media .

And yarnbombing

These are yarnbombed trees from Bloomington , Indiana . This yarnbombing was organized to raise money for Domestic Voilence Awareness  Month . This went up Oct 5 2012 and will be up until the spring

This happened in an interesting way . Last year a local yarn shop ” Yarns Unlimited ” yarnbombed a tree outside of the shop . The shelter  Middle Way House  was intrigued by this and asked the owner Mary Ann Gringle to help come up with a yarnbombing fundraiser they called ” Knit to Heal ”

Local businesses where asked to each adopt a tree and pay for it to be yarnbombed  . The yarnbombing raised more than 10, oo0 dollars . 23 trees were yarnbombed .  more photos here

the story here

When I read the blogs of people who participate in these big city wide yarnbombings they talk about how excited they were to make something really big , to go out with a large group on a given day and create a city of knitting and crocheting , how exciting it was to see all the different trees – this is a great kind of community . Knitting and crocheting have always been made to give to people we love – this is a big , local , personal and also universal kind of love.

ok one more picture

2 trees yarnbombed for the Bellvue Campus of Hillcrest AIDS Centre by Woza Moya  Durban South Africa International AIDS DAY  Dec 10, 2012

December 21, 2012December 21, 2012 by streetcolor Categories: UncategorizedTags: cities, crocheting, knitting, Knitting For AIDS, Knitting For Charity, Love, Woza Moya, yarnbombing 1 Comment

Yarnbombing And The Future – Yarnbombing The Entire City Of Genova , Italy

This is the  18th Century staircase of the Palazza Ducale , – yarnbombed by the Argentinian  artist Licia Santuz as the prelude  for the yarnbombing of the entire city of Genova Italy . Nov 15 2012

So this is the plan – in March 2013 the entire port city of Genova will be yarnbombed or as they say in Italy ” bombarded with yarn ” . The city has set up more than a hundred different locations for people to meet and knit –  including libraries , senior homes  , civil service buildings , youth organizations and even a prison .  A prison ! Oh I’d love to see the prisoners yarnbombing.

It’s expected that hundreds , probably thousands of people will participate . The stated goal is to overcome discord between many different generations and use yarnbombing as a method to weave them all together .  And the prisoners too .

This is very moving to me . I wake up every morning thinking I really should get a more reasonable  interest than yarnbombing to dwell on .  Like phone apps . Or industrial welding .  Then as I read about this  yarnbombing plan I feel everything that I hold as so important – how yarnbombing includes everyone as an art form , how it expands this pleasurable social activity of knitting into some thing grander and more heroic , how enveloping a city in the every day creativity of it’s inhabitants is so appealing and magnetically attractive .

Maybe I’m not so silly after all.

You have to keep wondering how much further can yarnbombing go  ?  Maybe a continent ……

yarnbombing by Licia Santuz

more here

November 19, 2012November 19, 2012 by streetcolor Categories: International yarnbombing, UncategorizedTags: cities, creativity, crocheting, Genova, Italy, knitting, Licia Santuz, yarnbombing 5 Comments

Yarnbombing , Giant Plastic Slugs and Rubber Duckies

These enormous immovable slug sculptures are called ” Slowslugs  ” and are made of steel , netting and 40 ,000 recycled plastic bags . They were made for the Accroche Coers Festival in Angers, France and they were up for 10 days , Sept 7 to 17 , 2012 . The artist is Dutch street artist Floretijin Hofmann .

The slugs are placed so that they appear to be crawling slowly up the hills of Angers toward the towns’ big Catholic church . They are meant to symbolize mortality , religion , natural decay and the slow suffocation of commercial society .

Ok .  This image of these gigantic plastic bag slugs appeared suddenly , mysteriously and annoyingly with out any information on Facebook and it is my holy quest to document these sort of things .  I thought it was an astonishing sculpture , heavy and ponderous and also light , silly , childish and scary . The artist  Florentijin Hofman has made many of these cheerful , goofy and overwhelming outdoor animal installations – the most well known is probably  ” Rubber Duck ” in Osaka harbor ,  Japan in 2009 .

Hofman and his interns work for months on his outdoor sculptures and they are often up for only a few days . He tells his interns that in the end they will only remember the completed art and the time of work will fade out of mind .

His motto is  ”  Work Big ! ”

He also likes to use local materials and objects that are very familiar and normal to the viewer like the flip flops he used to make ” Fat Monkey ”  for the Pixelshow Conference in Sao Paulo in 2012 . The flip flops are his reference to pixels .

Work on this scale with such confidence ,  playfulness and swagger  gives a real rush of energy to create . It  lets us see yarnbombing street art in the context of other art made to be outside , made to be  interacting with people unexpectedly , art made to be  put up for a short time  and then  taken down . { My favorite story about people interacting with his art unexpectedly was that a woman in Osaka stopped to take a picture of ‘ Rubber Duck ” and her car drove into the harbor . }

This is a quote of Florentijin Hofman that is interesting :

” That’s how my work comes full circle: you change a public space by adding something new, then you change it back again by taking it out which is when you start to miss it. It really changes how people perceive public space. I can tell you countless stories of activists collecting signatures to keep the artwork in place, but like I said, missing it is part of the concept! ”

More here and here

October 25, 2012October 25, 2012 by streetcolor Categories: International yarnbombingTags: cities, crocheting, france, knitting, rubber duckies in art, street art, yarnbombing 1 Comment

Yarnbombing – 65 Yarnbombed Trees Ruttopuisto Park , Helsinki , Finland

There were 65 yarnbombed trees in this unprecedented and unparalleled yarnbombing action called Knit n ‘ Tag  in Ruttopuisto Park , Helsinki , Finland .  Aug 25 until Sept 27 2012 .

3  Great Things About This

1 This yarnboming of Ruttopuisto park was organized by The Youth Department of Helsinki part of The World Design Capitol 2012 programs . Ruttopuisto Park is also called ” Old Church Park “and ”  Plague Park . ”

2 . The Youth Department took pictures of all the trees in the park and invited any one in Finland to pick a  tree and cover it . You could make anything you wanted , no jurying , everyone was welcome . If you couldn’t make a whole tree you could just send a little piece of knitting and it would get sewn into something bigger . The Exhibition was named Knit n ‘ Tag .

3 . The day of the installation there was a huge party , 4000 people came , there was music , food and contests. For weeks after ward people flocked the park to stroll around all the yarnbombed the  trees and take pictures .

This is an unimaginable amount of knitting  , crocheting and sparkling creativity to make 65 yarnbombed trees . 

Lets look at what it took just to make one tree by Palone Design Concepts Store .

The Tree of Dreams

Molla Mills , one of the designers at Paloni ,  made the directions for a crocheted chain . 4 workshops were set up to make chain and tens of crocheters aged 4 to 82 obsessively crocheted chain .  Paloni also decided to include little signs that described peoples’ dreams for the new City Library . The finished chain was 130 meters , roughly 650 meters of crocheting .

Their message was  ” textile graffiti brings joy , brings joy and cures our handicraft trauma . ”

so that’s 2 of the 65 trees. more here .

Here are a few more of the yarnbombed trees from this lavish art exhibition.

these beautiful pictures are by Susanna . her blog is here

So I have 3 things to say about this

a. Part of what is great about yarnbombing is it includes everyone , anyone can do it anytime , children , new knitters , serious artist, lone yarnbombers , youth groups , old age homes , anyone who wants to . This is an amazing terrific exhibition and it had no jury .

b. The Art World is so compressed , only a few people can get to be artists . What if everyone was welcomed to be an artist ? What if woman’s work was considered  as something worth looking at ? Well covering a whole park of trees with textiles –  it  lets you look .

c. I’ve always been excited to find one yarnbombed tree  . 65 trees !  I had to look at a few and then go take some deep breaths . I can’t grasp how many people enjoyed getting to yarnbomb.

As well as the 65 trees Knit n’ Tag  also yarnbombed this lovely gold plastic cow.

 

September 29, 2012September 29, 2012 by streetcolor Categories: International yarnbombing, UncategorizedTags: cities, crocheting, Finland, graffiti, knitting, yarnbombingin Helsinki 5 Comments

yarnbombing and The ” Assault on Zaragoza ” Spain

This is # 8 Liberty Street in the old quarter of Zaragoza  , Spain – yarnbombed on Thursday Sept 13 by 100 woman .
3 great Things About This

1 . This yarnbombing was one of 10 interventions done all over Zaragoza through ”  The Assault Festival of Street Art ” .  This was done with the cooperation of the city of Zaragoza who contributed 45,000 euros .

Funding ! Cooperation !  Recognition of yarnbombing as legitimate street art !  All very new and exciting.

2 . This is a huge yarnbombing . There are more than a thousand 20 x 20 squares. The wall of knitting and crocheting is 50 square meters. 1oo woman knit for almost 6 months to make this .

It was made only by woman .

There a re a number of  ” Urban Knitting   ” guerrilla yarnbombing groups in Spain in the cities of Zaragoza , Bilboa , Castellar and others and they often collaborate as they did for this yarnbombing .

3 .  The ministry of culture for Zaragoza described the intention of this yarnbombing was to build a more positive city through spontaneous art and color .

What does this mean that larger and larger groups of mostly woman are covering buses , entire buildings , entire towns with knitting and crocheting ? That this is being welcomed into the tough mostly male world of street art ? Welcomed by huge art festivals ?

Joy , passion , freedom and ambition are thrilling through these woman artists and they are making a world .

Montse Palacian said that the colors of this knitted installation had a particular meaning –

the light rich colors are to express joy and

the dark heavy colors are to express the fears and frustrations we all have .

I am very happy to hear yarnbombers start to talk about the power of their work  and it’s meaning . Yarnbombing is fun but it’s not trivial .

This part of the city  Zaragoza must be so intensely energized by all this knitting , time , effort , feeling and color.  It’s a new kind of house – the beautifully dressed up  house . Like making clothes for dolls , robes for statues of saints ,  ritual clothes for festivals . This is the power and protection that is put into a handmade object through a lot of time , concentration and devotion.

The textile becomes a spirit object.

Very  ,very interesting .

more about this here

all photos by Urban Knitting Zaragoza .

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September 17, 2012 by streetcolor Categories: International yarnbombingTags: art, cities, crocheting, knitting, streetart, yarnbombing, yarnbombing in Spain 2 Comments