The Knitted Facade, Lake Grace Regional Artspace, Western Australia
Art in Motion - A Wind Festival at Lake Grace, 2009
The Lake Grace Artists' Group was hosting an upcoming Wind Festival, so a seed was sown to knit some fun. Phyl and I decided that our Artspace was lacking a few verandah posts so we decided to knit some, so of course they would need to be free to move in the wind!
We pleaded for donated T-Shirts from the community, to cut up and then knit back together. It was thought to be a strange idea for a project and puzzled questions came from people, but they willingly gave and duly we had a huge stack of tees ready and waiting- thanks everyone!
Some sampling for size and off we went knitting and then having a cutting up day at the Lake Grace Multi-Artspace. Thank you to the girls from the Art Group who helped. We cut and wound up the many balls of tarn (short for T-shirt yarn). Phyl and I then had the huge task of completing the 8 posts and the 18 fretwork corners. We decided to make a strip that went the full length of the verandah, 17 metres, to hang the posts off! When completed the knitting was mounted on a drill backing to keep from stretching. The trusty old Pfaff doing the hard yards of stitching through the very thick knitting. The dilemma of how to hang the work was solved with curtain rings and a cable.
The effect off the work was great, it brightened the street as well as everyone’s day. The feedback was inspirational from the residents and passers-by alike with many tourists commenting just how wonderful it was to come to a town with some spirit. We left the project up for the whole month of October. We were sad to see it come down, but it will return.
