Art Installation at the World Bodypainting Festival
This year I am lucky enough to be creating an Installation at the World Bodypainting Festival. Last year as we drove home we were flooded with ideas for creating something amazing. My daughter, Isobel, was full of crazy pie in the sky dreams of knitted trees and all kinds of incredible things. Fort he nine hour drive home we pondered the possibilities... And then, a few months later after a chat with Alex Barendregt, the festival organiser, we decided to do it. So for the last 7 months I have been working towards realising those dreams from that long journey.
Coalescence of Creation
Trees enveloped in brightly coloured yarns, a canopy of crochet circles letting light dapple through their bright colours to the woodland floor. Amongst the brightly coloured trees creatures hide, knitted birds in their knitted nests, Crochet butterflies emerging from crochet cocoons, woven spiders sitting on their silken spun webs, knitted and woven flowers bloom all around. From within this world created from yarns, threads, silks and strings emerge colourful dancers who embody the threads of creation themselves dancing a human maypole dance of co-operation, co-existence and creation.
Our dreams were to create an alternate reality fashioned from colour and light. We dreamed of multi-coloured trees, of swings wrapped in knitted flowers, of sunlight dappling onto the woodland floor in stained glass patterns through a brightly crocheted canopy of colour. Hand crafted figures, and creatures hidden on branches, knitted flowers growing in the ground. Hand crafted, yarn bombed nature, with the crystal waters of Worthersee and the mountains in the background.
One drawback was that although my Grandfather had taught me how to crochet when I was small, I had entirely forgotten the skill, my knitting was also rusty. So I set out to relearn, and to find fibre artists who would want to join in to make something amazing. So far we have over 100 fibre artists from more than 15 countries who have created pieces for the Installation. Some are young, a group of Girl Scouts from the USA, some old, retired crafters crafting in their retirement home. Many many people of both sexes and all ages. I will share per the next few days some information about some of the amazing artists who have become part of this journey. Creating this piece has truly been a community effort and brings together artists of many creeds and colours from across the globe.
We look forward to building and sharing our Installation with you. Join us at 5.30 on Saturday 4th July for our presentation in Bodypaint City.
