I’m writing today from Chicago. We’re here for the Thanksgiving holiday with my boyfriend’s family and boy is it cold. It’s got me thinking about crochet, knitwear, felting, and anything that would warm my feet! I had sent myself an email last week of links to artists’ pages I found somewhere along the way (and was leaving open on our home computer’s browser – a big NoNo). One of those artists is Amy Long. I’m so glad I sent it to myself as her stuff is just crazy awesome.
Terissue is the name of the above piece, which is crochet and felted wool yarn – in her artist statement Amy explains that she’s creating works to represent complex, interdependent systems.
I love how this looks like organisms – her work is called, Bundles. She does this both through hand and machine felting. The colors are amazing and the brown, bandage-like parts make this look even more related to hospitals and healthcare.
Red Heart, Blue Hat. Creepy. I love it.
This again reminds me or Ernesto Neto’s work – the hanging shapes from the ceiling. I really like though that she’s using a material I’m more familiar with than stockings and sand. Amy talks a lot about her work being parts making up a larger whole, which is something that I think is reflected in her pieces but also in the process. She says, “the buildup and accumulation of interlocking fibers and stitches in the processes of felt making and crocheting correlate to growth and aggregations that occur in the body.”
Such crazy installations – it’s like you’re looking at your intestines! This one’s called Bundles – Meniscus.
Close up! I think I can tell what’s hand felted and what’s machine. I do wonder if she goes into these pieces with a pattern and a plan or if she lets them take shape on her own – either way – pretty amazing look to them!
Tags: 3D, felting, installations, sculpture, textiles, weaving, yarn