Coming
into its third issue, KnitKnit currently exists as a numbered, limited edition
artists book that provides a forum for the growing movement in contemporary
art that loves to craft. Not concerned so much with defining boundaries between
fine art and craft or fashion, architecture, and other seemingly disparate
fields this movement engages all realms, and the cracks in between. Craft is
both the purpose and the by-product of this art, but its not the result. The
result is an all-inclusive concept about making that encourages a new way of
seeing. Craft-based art forces its audience into a physically reciprocal way of
looking, rooted in a visceral, haptic and sensual rather than exclusively
visual response.
KnitKnit acts not only as a space for examining ideas about
the craft movement, it also seeks to showcase the diverse set of artists,
artisans and art spaces involved. Articles have ranged from the writings of 19th
century architect Gottfried Semper to an interview with a founding member of
the techno record label Beige Records who sews beaded patterns modeled after
early microprocessors onto glass bottles. KnitKnit is also an instructive tool
(issue #2 consisted entirely of arts and crafts-making directions and recipes).
In addition to the publication, KnitKnit now also produces, often in collaboration
with other organizations, a wide range of activities such as exhibitions, film
and video screenings, and musical performances. The Knitted Light screening at
Brooklyn film venue Ocularis explored traditional handcraft and surface design
through film and video work made by artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Annabel
Nicolson, Joan Jonas, and Stephen Beck. The upcoming KnitKnit Sundown Salon at
the Fritz Haeg Gallery in Los Angeles will showcase a performance by the
fashion art collective Feral Childe, a meeting of the Church of Craft, and
installations by artists Andrea Zittel, Lisa Auerbach, and Jim Drain, among
others.
For more information,
please visit http://www.knitknit.net.
Images(please
contact me if you need more of a selection)
The following
captions should accompany the images sent if any are used:
Beck, Stephen.
Video Weavings, 1976. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.
Sabrina
Gschwandtner making KnitKnit issue #1, 2002. Photo by Jason Spingarn-Koff.
KnitKnit issue #1
was 150 small books made of black and white photocopies with covers cut from
fabric scraps and adorned by a haphazard spray-painted stencil announcing,
KnitKnit. I did most of the writing myself and gave most of the books away.
Back then I thought of it as a zine, and it was made with a zine style energy,
timeline, and distribution method.
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