What on earth is Yarn Bombing?

http://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/news/articles/the-art-craft-of-yarn-bombing

t was two in the afternoon as "Bali" tagged the thick grey pole on

Melville Street in West Brunswick. She looked around furtively. "I

usually put them up late at night or early in the morning," she said.

"I don't like people watching."

In a café behind her, staff and patrons watched with mild curiosity.

Bali finished attaching her tag with a knot, cut her needle off, and

attached a note to lead curious passers-by to her blog, Twilight

Taggers.

What's "Yarn Bombing"?Unlike the ugly scrawled tags on trains and brick walls, Bali's graffiti

is a length of knitted black wool stretched around the pole and

adorned with colourful crochet flowers.

"Yarn bombing", or "guerilla knitting", uses the homely act of knitting

and crochet to create colorful, cozy graffiti.

After some time tagging by herslf during work hours, Bali created

the Yarn Corner Facebook group to get like-minded people together

to create bigger installations. Yarn Corner has grown to 390

members since, and has recently been commissioned by the City of

Melbourne to cover all of the trees in City Square from January 27

2013.

Is It Legal? Whether yarn bombing is illegal or not differs from council to

council, and very few seem to be able to make up their mind as to whether it is

classified as graffiti.

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A Melbourne City spokesperson has said that yarn bombing is not included in the

council's graffiti management policies.

"We do not necessarily consider yarn bombing to be graffiti," he said. "We will

generally remove yarn from objects once it has been in place long enough for its

condition to deteriorate. We will also remove yarn if it causes an obstruction or if

it threatens to damage property or trees."

However, yarn bombers should check with their local council to make sure they

are operating legally before putting anything up.

Bali has found that there's mostly a good feeling about yarn bombing, especially

around Brunswick.

"I don't know anyone who has been charged. I was putting one up and a security

guard came out and told me to take it down or he'd call the police," she said.

"The worst that will happen is someone will laugh at you!"

The New Zealand AngleHelene Dehmer tags in New Zealand under the name Knitty Graffity and sells

hand-dyed wool products through her Happy-Go-Knitty online store.

"I was told off by the guard at Auckland Art Gallery when I put up a piece

outside," Ms Dehmer says. "They removed the tag the day after."

This didn't deter Ms Dehmer from a large-scale project called The Woolly Walk

Along, which she organised to coincide with the 2012 Rugby World Cup.

"The Woolly Walk Along ended up being an 80-metre-long installation… over 90

people from all over the world contributed," she said. "They were everything from

beginners to hardcore yarn bombers. Their creativity was awesome!"

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But Is It Art?A common influence on these yarn bombers is the book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain. Giving practical

advice on starting your tags, assembling your crew and "taking it to the streets",

Moore and Prain helped turn this once obscure practice into a worldwide

phenomenon.

However, one major influence on the movement, artist Agata Oleksiak, gets

upset when her large-scale crochet installations are labeled as yarn bombing. I

met her on a chilly street in London where she was crocheting the cover for an

iconic black cab.

"My work is not graffiti, it's art," she had said when I asked her how she felt about

the yarn bombing movement.

Oleksiak's view is that the streets are like a gallery. There should be a high

standard, and not everyone should be allowed to exhibit. Bali finds this

laughable. "It's about fun, it's about getting people together," she says. "It's not

meant to be a massively serious thing."

Another of the Yarn Corner administrators, "Jaguar", considers Yarn Corner her

full-time job along with being a stay-at-home mum.

"You never know what kind of reaction or response you'll receive from the

general public," she said. "It's about expression, and putting a tiny piece of

yourself out there into the world for all to see".

For Ms Dehmer, though, it's all about making people smile."There is so much

doom and gloom in the world, I think people need something unexpected," she

says. "A colourful message that will brighten up their day."

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It's a Social ThingFor those who want to get involved, crafting groups are springing up all over

Melbourne. Yarn Corner meets every second Sunday to crochet their individual

or group projects together, and crochet and knitting classes for beginners are run

at places such as Thread Den in Fitzroy and North Melbourne, and Crafternoon

Café in Carlton.

The Brown Owls are another social crafting initiative with groups all around

Melbourne. The groups meet fortnightly or monthly to work on individual projects

while having a drink and a chat with likeminded people.

Stacy Foster, the organiser of the Brunswick chapter of Brown Owls, says people

come for the social aspect in an otherwise solitary pursuit.

"They really enjoy doing whatever their craft is and chatting. It's a nice

community to come to," she said. "It's that feeling you get from aunties and

nieces." 

http://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/news/articles/the-art-craft-of-yarn-bombing

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