After seven months, and an incredible amount of yarn, the work of 50 artists was unveiled in Warwick’s knitted kitchen.
Knitters have transformed the foyer of the Warwick Art Gallery in Australia, into a kitchen “entirely knitted, crocheted, felted, woven, and wrapped in yarn,” said gallery director Karina Devine. “It’s our knitchen!”
“It’s inspired by an old fashioned kitchen,” Devine said. “There are no stainless steel appliances, but there is an old fashioned telephone,” Abc.net.au reported.
Part of the Jumpers and Jazz art festival in Warwick, held in late July, Devine says she wanted to create something quirky and fun for the annual event. “Yarn bombing is an international phenomenon. This wasn’t about going out in the middle of the night and whacking something up on a fencepost. This was carefully planned. One of our team says our project was more ‘art’ than ‘bombing’.”
Yarn bombing, yarn storming, urban knitting, graffiti knitting or kniffiti is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fiber rather than paint or chalk.
“I got a new oven last year, and kept my old oven so I could wrap it,” Devine said. “The most exciting part for me was creating the crocheted gas flame, and hand sewing the orange flecks. That gives me a little bit of a kick every time I see it.”
“It’s wonderful to see the results of creative people,” Devine said. “Who would have thought you could cover a whole room, including the floor, with yarn? But here we are.”
“We would have meetings where people would come up with suggestions like ‘every kitchen needs a set of flying ducks’,” said project coordinator Loretta Grayson. “And then someone would say ‘oh, I’ll knit those’.”
“I had to learn how to create custom garments for furniture,” said Grayson. “I’m not sure how big a market there is out there for that sort of thing! That’s my table and chairs, and my husband is worried I’m going to start covering more furniture!”
The festival started with traditional yarn bombing in Warwick’s main street. Small tree trunks were wrapped in wool to keep them warm during the coldest month of the year.
Devine is proud the knitchen can stand alongside the yarnbombed street as “yarn art”. Local knitters are already planning next year’s feature piece.
