Yarnbombing Los Angeles

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Yarnbombing Los Angeles

Yarnbombing Los Angeles (YBLA) is a group of guerrilla knitters that have been collaborating since 2010. They are based at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California. YBLA stages public installation art and performances to help expand the definition of public art to embrace street art, Urban Interventionism and ephemera. Collaborative art making, community building, public outreach, blurring boundaries between contemporary art practices, graffiti and craft are integral components to YBLA's practice.

Contents

History

YBLA organically grew out of a series of participatory yarn bombing events in Los Angeles, California. Inspired by the book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain, [1] Heather Hoggan of Arroyo Arts Collective [2] and Amy Inouye of Future Studio [3] decided to organize Fig Knit On [4] in October 2010. The event took place on Figueroa Street in Highland Park, Los Angeles and had 19 local participants.

The group stayed together when Fig Knit On participant Arzu Arda Kosar [5] invited Hoggan to another yarn bombing at the 18th Street Arts Center on June 18, 2011 and 12 of the Fig Knit On participants signed on. What followed was a six month process of putting together Yarn Bombing 18th Street [6] where local participants met monthly at Kosar’s 18th Street studio and some even developed additional projects such as the Empathy Circle. [7]

Yarnbombing 18th Street formed a Facebook page [8] and was soon joined by 50 local and international cohorts [9] who signed up to create their own original site-specific installations. Due to the diversity of the participants, Yarn Bombing 18th Street ended up becoming an international survey of the yarn bombing movement showcasing a wide variety of installations that ranged from the highly political to whimsical to conceptual pieces. [10] The event deliberately coincided with the 18th Street Arts Center's Debating Through the Arts [11] event by Inez S. Bush & Jerri Allyn, who was a member of the Woman's Building, and so Yarnbombing 18th Street was therefore presented in relation to a movement that questioned established art practices on material, technical, and conceptual levels. [12]

The group then yarn bombed their own cars outside the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles’s Art in the Streets show [13] in August 2011 to bring yarn bombing to the attention of street art lovers. By then the group adopted the collective name Yarnbombing Los Angeles (YBLA). The core members, participants and level of involvement among collaborators have been fluid based on project. [14]

Art

YBLA activities range from knit graffiti workshops for Los Angeles Unified School District teachers, students, and their parents, [15] to installing hugging trees around town, [16] ongoing participatory projects such as the Urban Letters [17] and Forest for the Trees [18] and interactive installations such as the Wishing Tree [19] and “Wish I Were Here” pillows. [20]

YBLA’s largest endeavor to date is CAFAM Granny Squared, [21] a self-produced grassroots project that brought together an international community of over 500 artists and crafters to cover the façade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum with granny squares to make a statement about artistic and institutional identities. [22] CAFAM Granny Squared was installed in May 2013 and dismantled in September 2013. Leftover contributions were assembled into blankets as part of a collaboration with the Downtown Women's Center. [23] Christopher Knight, art critic at the Los Angeles Times, referred to the installation as "wonderfully weird," "jarringly playful," and "disconcertingly fuzzy," while placing it into a context with Minimalist repetition and Bauhaus textile arts. [24]

YBLA has monthly meetings every 3rd Saturday from 2-5pm at the Craft and Folk Art Museum [25] that are open to the public. [26] [27]

Literature

Yarn Bombing Los Angeles released a self-published catalog of an exhibit held at 18th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica, CA in June 2011 titled Yarn Bombing 18th Street [28] by Arzu Arda Kosar. Another book, CAFAM Granny Squared: Yarnbombing Los Angeles was published in 2013, to document the event of that name. [29]

Related Research Articles

Crochet is a process of creating textiles by using a crochet hook to interlock loops of yarn, thread, or strands of other materials. The name is derived from the French term croc, meaning 'hook'. Hooks can be made from a variety of materials, such as metal, wood, bamboo, bone or plastic. The key difference between crochet and knitting, beyond the implements used for their production, is that each stitch in crochet is completed before the next one is begun, while knitting keeps many stitches open at a time. Some variant forms of crochet, such as Tunisian crochet and broomstick lace, do keep multiple crochet stitches open at a time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knitting</span> Method of forming fabric

Knitting is a method for production of textile fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Site-specific art</span> Artwork created for a certain place

Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork. Site-specific art is produced both by commercial artists, and independently, and can include some instances of work such as sculpture, stencil graffiti, rock balancing, and other art forms. Installations can be in urban areas, remote natural settings, or underwater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of knitting</span> History of knitting

Knitting is the process of using two or more needles to pull and loop yarn into a series of interconnected loops in order to create a finished garment or some other type of fabric. The word is derived from knot, thought to originate from the Dutch verb knutten, which is similar to the Old English cnyttan, "to knot". Its origins lie in the basic human need for clothing for protection against the elements. More recently, hand knitting has become less a necessary skill and more of a hobby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craftivism</span> Form of activism centered on practices of craft

Craftivism is a form of activism, typically incorporating elements of anti-capitalism, environmentalism, solidarity, or third-wave feminism, that is centered on practices of craft - or what has traditionally been referred to as "domestic arts". Craftivism includes, but is not limited to, various forms of needlework including yarn-bombing or cross-stitch. Craftivism is a social process of collective empowerment, action, expression and negotiation. In craftivism, engaging in the social and critical discourse around the work is central to its production and dissemination. Practitioners are known as craftivists. The word 'craftivism' is a portmanteau of the words craft and activism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knitta Please</span> American art group

Knitta Please, also known as simply Knitta, is the group of artists who began the "knit graffiti" movement in Houston, Texas in 2005. They are known for wrapping public architecture—e.g. lampposts, parking meters, telephone poles, and signage—with knitted or crocheted material, a process known as "knit graffiti", "yarn storming" or "yarnbombing". The mission is to make street art "a little more warm and fuzzy."

Hand knitting is a form of knitting, in which the knitted fabric is produced by hand using needles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olek (artist)</span> Polish-born artist, born 1978

Agata Oleksiak, known as Olek, is a Polish artist who is based in New York City. Their works include sculptures, installations such as crocheted bicycles, inflatables, performance pieces, and fiber art. They have covered buildings, sculptures, people, and an apartment with crochet and have exhibited in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Turkey, France, Italy, Poland, and Costa Rica.

Craft Contemporary, formerly the Craft and Folk Art Museum, is a non-profit, non-collecting arts museum dedicated to showcasing contemporary craft in Los Angeles, California. The museum is located on Los Angeles' Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard, and across from the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits. It is the only institution on the West Coast of the United States to focus exclusively on craft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yarn bombing</span> Type of graffiti or street art

Yarn bombing is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk. It is also called wool bombing, yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting, or graffiti knitting.

Alexandra Grant is an American visual artist who examines language and written texts through painting, drawing, sculpture, video, and other media. She uses language and exchanges with writers as a source for much of that work. Grant examines the process of writing and ideas based in linguistic theory as it connects to art and creates visual images inspired by text and collaborative group installations based on that process. She is based in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knit the City</span> London knitting group

Knit the City is a group of "graffiti knitting and crochet" street artists founded in London, England in 2009. The collective is credited with being the first to go beyond the simple 'cosies' of early graffiti knitting to tell 'stitched stories', using knitted and crochet amigurumi creatures and objects in their public installations. This practice has been taken up by groups internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren O'Farrell</span> English author and artist, also known as Deadly Knitshade

Lauren O'Farrell, also known as Deadly Knitshade, is an English author and artist. She is best known for playing a major part in the beginnings of the UK graffiti knitting street art scene, creating the Stitch London craft community and founding graffiti knitting and craft collective Knit the City.

Eric Rieger, also known as HOTTEA, is a Minneapolis, Minnesota based artist. Rieger uses brightly colored yarn to design words and images on fences around Minneapolis. Originally a graffiti painter, Reiger switched to "yarn bombing" after spending time in jail for using paint. Instead of continuing on with graffiti art, Reiger studied for and received a degree in graphic design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). He graduated in 2007 and became a freelance artist.

Alex Brewer, also known as HENSE, is an American contemporary artist, best known for his dynamic, vivid and colorful abstract paintings and monumental wall pieces. He has been active since the 1990s. In 2002 he began accepting commissions for artwork and over the course of the last decade has established a solid reputation as a commissioned artist, having appeared in several solo and group shows.

Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945–1980 was a scholarly initiative funded by the J. Paul Getty Trust to historicize the contributions to contemporary art history of artists, curators, critics, and others based in Los Angeles. Planned for nearly a decade, PST, as it was called, granted nearly 60 organizations throughout Southern California a total of $10 million to produce exhibitions that explored the years between 1945 and 1980. Underscoring the significance of this project, art critic Roberta Smith wrote in The New York Times:

Before [PST], we knew a lot [about the history of contemporary art], and that lot tended to greatly favor New York. A few Los Angeles artists were highly visible and unanimously revered, namely Ed Ruscha and other denizens of the Ferus Gallery, that supercool locus of the Los Angeles art scene in the 1960s, plus Bruce Nauman and Chris Burden, but that was about it. After, we know a whole lot more, and the balance is much more even. One of the many messages delivered by this profusion of what will eventually be nearly 70 museum exhibitions is that New York did not act alone in the postwar era. And neither did those fabulous Ferus boys.

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Roger Gastman is an American art dealer, curator, filmmaker, and publisher who focuses on graffiti and street art.

Sherin Guirguis is a visual artist based in Los Angeles, California. Guirguis has had solo exhibitions of her work at 18th Street Art Center, The Third Line Gallery (Dubai), Shulamit Nazarian Gallery, and LAXART. In 2012, Guirguis received the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists and the 2014–15 City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship.

References

  1. ↑ Prain, Leanne (2009). Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN   978-1-55152-255-5.
  2. ↑ "Arroyo Arts Collective". Arroyo Arts Collective. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  3. ↑ "Future Studio|". Future Studio. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  4. ↑ "Fig Knit On". Future Studio. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  5. ↑ "Arzu Arda Kosar" . Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  6. ↑ "Yarnbombing 18th Street" . Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  7. ↑ "Empathy Project" . Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  8. ↑ "Yarnbombing Los Angeles Facebook Page". Facebook. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  9. ↑ "Yarnbombing 18th Street Crew" . Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  10. ↑ Milly, Jena (22 June 2011). "Yarn Bombing Isn't Knit and Run Anymore.". The Huffington Post (originally published in Turnstyle.com. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
  11. ↑ "Debating Through the Arts" . Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  12. ↑ Pajer, Nicole. "Yarn Bombing 18th Street ". The China Shop. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
  13. ↑ "Art in the Streets". MOCA. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  14. ↑ "Yarnbombing 18th Street Crew". Yarnbombing 18th Street. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  15. ↑ "Mini Makers Faire". Yarnbombing 18th Street. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  16. ↑ Fonseca, David (23 January 2012). "Yarn Bombers Descent on York Boulevard.". Highland Park Patch. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
  17. ↑ "Urban Letters" . Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  18. ↑ "Forest for the Trees" . Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  19. ↑ "Wishing Tree" . Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  20. ↑ "Wish I Were Here Pillows" . Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  21. ↑ Painter, Alysia Gray (10 May 2013). "12,000 "Granny Squares" Will Cover Museum Facade". NBC Southern California. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
  22. ↑ "Granny Squared Project" . Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  23. ↑ Janet Owen Driggs, "Unraveling the CAFAM Yarn Bomb," Artbound (July 3, 2013).
  24. ↑ Christopher Knight, "Yarn Bombing L. A. at the Craft & Folk Art Museum," Los Angeles Times (June 6, 2013).
  25. ↑ "Craft and Folk Art Museum Education" . Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  26. ↑ Boone, Lisa. " Yarn Bombing Los Angeles to cover craft museum in granny squares.". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2012-11-14. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
  27. ↑ Montgomery, Renee (9 May 2013). "The CAFAM Granny-Squared Project,". Los Angeles. WestMuse Blog. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
  28. ↑ Kosar, Arzu (2012). Yarn Bombing 18th Street. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN   978-1-47002-190-0.
  29. ↑ Carol Zou and Arzu Arda Kosar, eds., CAFAM Granny Squared: Yarnbombing Los Angeles (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2013).
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