Got $90,000? You may want to consider buying an art installation consisting of entire apartment covered in crocheted yarn. The piece is by the artist known as Olek — she’s the one who made a cozy for the Wall Street Bull back in December.
Today’s New York Times takes a look at Olek, “grandma graffiti” and the practice of yarn-bombing. (“I don’t yarn bomb, I make art,” says Olek. “If someone calls my bull a yarn bomb, I get really upset.”)
It’s interesting that her art and yarn-bombing are considered gender-specific. The Times headline is “Graffiti’s Cozy, Feminine Side,” and Malia Wollan writes:
Yarn bombing takes that most matronly craft (knitting) and that most maternal of gestures (wrapping something cold in a warm blanket) and transfers it to the concrete and steel wilds of the urban streetscape.
We get it! Men do not knit. Or put on sweaters, unless a woman tells them to.
But there’s definitely another factor at work: Day in and day out, we’re surrounded by so many machine-made products, and so much of our lives — from texting to email to microwaves — revolve around saving time. But Olek’s pieces — and the things yarn-bombers create — are hand-made, and require taking your time. It’s the human element that I’m drawn to, not the idea that it’s “woman’s work.” Although… it’s cool that when lady-made stuff covers man-made stuff, that stuff seems more interesting. Women on top.
Graffiti’s Cozy, Feminine Side [NY Times]
The Crochet Covered Apartment [Buzzfeed]
I Yarn-Bombed This [New York Magazine]
Earlier: How To Knit A Giant Sweater For A Bull