In yesterday’s feature about the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale there were some references to fashion in the works made by designer Antonio Marras.
Yet there is another work in the pavilion that made me think about fashion and in particular about knitwear.
It’s a sculpture entitled “La Posizione della Tigre” (The Position of the Tiger) by Erik Ravelo.
Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1978, Ravelo collaborates with Fabrica, Benetton’s Treviso-based communication research centre, and has recently created a series of 15 installations entitled "Lana Sutra" (Wool Sutra) that also includes the piece showcased at the Venice Biennale.
Moving from the Kama Sutra, the sculptures represent pure, natural love uniting diversity and binding humankind in a single thread.
Ravelo's sculpture reminded me a bit the work of Polish-born but Brooklyn-based artist Olek, who turned crocheting from a granny’s hobby into a slightly disturbing form of art.
Inspired by the movies she watches while crocheting, Olek has so far covered objects and people in colourful yarns that bring life, energy and dynamism to different places, from galleries and museums to public spaces.
In her exhibition "Knitting is for Pus****", Olek covered entire rooms in crocheted pieces emblazoned with slogans and populated them with men and women trapped in crocheted bodysuits, using craft to creatre a surreal performance world.
Ravelo and Olek's works may not be your usual innocent-looking knitted or crocheted crafts (doilies and toilet paper roll covers included…) but they definitely try to push things further.
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