Knitting has been de rigeur for the last few years amongst a certain set of hip, educated women who tend to live in large coastal cities. I attempted to join this set, which already includes many of my friends, about a year ago, with a short-lived but fabulous knitting group I organized called Needle Exchange. It sort of died out because -- despite my best intentions -- I am a truly horrible knitter.
Still, given my past experience shaping media relations for an anti-sweatshop campaign (and others, during a brief tenure at the garment-workers' union) and my current role as co-director of a feminist reading series, I am well aware of the political applications of DIY crafting.
In particular, I am interested in particular in the ways that the kind of design that emanates from the so-called "domestic arts", regardless of its level of sophistication or artistry, is shunned in the larger contemporary art world. One of the things I'd like to do in the next few years is organize an exhibition of artists who are subverting the valuation dichotomy between fine art and craft and making intellectually striking political commentary on our socially-constructed concepts of art in the process. I'd also like to explore how craft relates to the economic aspects of globalism and materialist culture.
Since that's often on my mind, I was delighted to discover Betsy Greer's dissertation on "knitting, DIY culture and community development," posted at her website, Craftivism.
I haven't read the whole thing yet, but I am skipping around and particularly enjoying the "craft as a subversive/feminist act?" section:
DIY ethics are very important to me, as they not only remind me to be aware of how things are produced and consumed, they also challenge and stretch my creativity. If there is something that can be made by either me or my friends instead of being purchased, I would prefer to construct it. ... It is out of a similar belief that allowed me to embrace crafts such as knitting even at the beginning I had numerous discussions with friends about my feminist and punk beliefs. Amusingly, there were some people in my acquaintance who thought that by learning to knit, I was losing my edge. Every time I craft, I am being subversive.Agreed.
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