I am the Social Media Manager for the East Lansing Art Festival and this year we are accepting non-traditional Emerging Artists for the first time. In the past our Emerging Artist program (although fantastic) was limited to artists who had graduated from Art School within the past two years. This year we are loosening our restrictions to allow for those Emerging Artists who followed a different path. When I was promoting the news to festival followers on twitter I got a reply from someone asking "Does yarn bombing count as art? We think so!". I wasn't sure what that meant, and we do have a fibers section in the festival so I naturally assumed 'yarnbombing' was some type of knitting. Well, it is, but it is not what I expected. I googled the term before I sent a tweet back to this lady. I now think that yarnbombing is one of the coolest things in the world. I literally googled this minutes ago, but I don't care, I'm sold.
Yarnbombing is essentially knit-graffiti. It is beautiful! It is street art that is employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth as opposed to chalk or paint. According to Wikipedia the practice is believed to have originated in the U.S. with Texas knitters trying to find a creative way to use their leftover and unfinished knitting projects, but it has since spread worldwide.
It is really amazing. Even though some of the peices stay in their locations for years, they are easily removable and not harming the locations they are placed like spray paint would be while still making crazy artistic impressions. Yard bombing is not about lashing out, advertising, politics or territorial claims, it is about beautifying the area. It is about reclaiming cold public places and energizing locations that may be forgotten.
This winter I might just have to get my knitting needles out! I don't know if it would be a good fit for the ELAF, but I know that in my book, yarnbombing counts art, no question.
- Lizzie
