{ robyn love }
2009 - 10
For the project, Knitting Sprawl, I traveled across Canada speaking with people about their commnunities. I focused on people living in suburban developments and communities outside of larger cities with an aim to find a center in the centerless geography of the suburbs.
In order to find groups of people, I tapped into the network of "knit nights" that currently exist all over the world. Using ravelry.com as a means of finding groups in each community I visited, I met with knitters and talked to them about where they lived. Starting in St. John's, Newfoundland, in September 2009, I ended in Vancouver, BC, in June 2010. In addition to the conversations, which were videotaped and photographed, I photographed the commnunities and kept an online blog documenting the process.
Based on this process, I am creating a body of new work - primarily knit and crocheted - as a reflection on m experiences and on the notion of sprawl itself. Like the idea the project is based on, the artwork is centerless, with no one element standing out over the others. The conversations, the photographs, the video, and the knitting all occupy an equal place, spread out across the landscape
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Detail, Knitting Sprawl - Ontario, 2010. Handknit wool with glazed porcelain.
Knit Together, St. John's, NL (Arts and Culture Centre Library), 2009.
Knitting Sprawl - Laval, QC, 2009. Colour photographs
Some of the work in progress was presented at The Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough, ON, in January 2010.
Knitting Sprawl has been generously funded by the Canada Council on the Arts. 