KNITTING NATION is ongoing, collaborative performance and site-specific installation project. … The project functions as a commentary on how humans interact with machines, global manufacturing, trade and labor, iconography, and fashion.

The first phase of KNITTING NATION, (2005) “Knitting During Wartime” … inspired me to explore the history of knitting in the United States, especially around times of war, and to use the piece to comment on the knitting we are doing during our current wartime experience.

Phase 2 (2006) a six-day residency during Fashion Week … [the performance consisted of a] rotating trio of knitters functioning in a studio setting, who made multiples of sweaters that went directly onto garment racks and were presented for sale to the public in the same space.

KNITTING NATION phase 3 was also highly experimental, machines and knitters … created repeating, sequential stripe patterns. … Each knitter would rotate position in the line, … thereby shifting the patterns across the expanse of the lengths of knit yardage that were generated from four straight hours of knitting. … The piece functioned for me as a game of chance, and revealed new ideas about how intuition, gravity and light affect color and pattern in knit material. I was also stricken anew by the idea of KNITTING NATION as a type of “happening”, drawing spectators into the buzz of activity, where the sound and motion both stimulated and transfixed the participants as well as the audience.

Phase 4 of the project will occur in June in New York, and will bring a new conversation to the piece around sexuality, gender and fetish, with costumes and connections between the makers and what is made. [the goal] is to create a knitwear version of the “pride flag” — the rainbow-hued banner designed by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker. Originally created in 1978, the flag has since become a popular symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer community, or LGBTQ for short. {quote and image from Providence Journal}

[the bulk of this text is from an extract of the knitting nation manifesto and and the phase 1-3 images are taken from Liz Collins website] [via craftzine]

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