I am an artist not because of what I create, its value to me or others, but because I have an incessant need to create, to express myself artistically using yarn as my chosen media.
A common misconception is that knitters replicate items therefore it is a craft. Firstly: visual artists can all attempt to represent the same still life and yet due to each one’s unique physiology, even the same stimulus and materials, each artist will produce a unique art work. The same is true for knitters. Their choice of yarn, tension, technique, interpretation of instructions, will mean a unique artwork even when working from the same pattern.
Nonetheless, I will not be using any patterns: I will be drawing on experience, story, and responding to the inspiration around me.
To share my practice, and prove my commitment to the process not the outcome, I am exhibiting this SALA Festival an open studio/ live demonstration/ performance art piece where I will be knitting, unraveling and reknitting unrepeatable knitted artefacts over a five day period, commencing Tuesday 23 August in the front window of Yarn Trader, a premium yarn store in Port Adelaide. It will also be live-streamed on Twitch (Dear_Pru)
Pru Raymond wrote a feature based on her experience of this art exhibition for Yarnologie Magazine, Volume 3, published in December 2022. Backorders can be purchased here