Maybe I'm projecting from my own experience (of having refined a craft skill to the point where I was inventing difficult things to do with it because they were difficult and pretty and hadn't been done before, rather than because the stuff I was doing with it had much merit beyond those things), but there is a point at which it starts to be a waste; indulging the skill because you have it, rather than because it is the best use of your time and skill.
Knitting a skeleton triggers those memories and that response in me. :-/ posted by -harlequin- at 1:11 PM on November 2, 2010
To clarify, if an artist desperately wanted to create a knitted skeleton, but didn't know how to knit, and taught themselves to knit specifically so they could build the work they envisioned, I would see that differently to an artist limiting their vision and works to things that stay largely within the materials they were already familiar with. Though both paths might result in a knitted skeleton, I'd be far more interested in the former than the latter, because to me it suggests an intrinsic reason that it must take the form it did. posted by -harlequin- at 1:24 PM on November 2, 2010
This is really freaking cool. That knitted skeleton is something else.
-harlequin-: if an artist desperately wanted to create a knitted skeleton, but didn't know how to knit, and taught themselves to knit specifically so they could build the work they envisioned, I would see that differently to an artist limiting their vision and works to things that stay largely within the materials they were already familiar with.
When I started knitting, I was fairly product oriented; I wanted to learn different knitting techniques because I wanted to produce a particular object (baby hat, bag, sweater). Now I enjoy knitting different objects (socks, toys) because I want to learn different, complex techniques (short rows for creating rounded areas; cables; stranded knitting for colourwork). As I've developed competence, I think I've become much more process oriented.
Perhaps this artist is process oriented and wanted to challenge himself to learn the techniques necessary to imitate bones, a skull, internal organs. posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:02 PM on November 2, 2010
Why should knitting different things be less artistic than painting (or sculpting) different things? posted by rikschell at 3:16 PM on November 2, 2010
Why should knitting different things be less artistic than painting (or sculpting) different things?
It's not. The same criticisms apply to the skills of painting. Sculpting, well that's already the topic - a knitted skeleton is a sculpture. posted by -harlequin- at 3:27 PM on November 2, 2010
I would eat condensed milk with spoon. I'm jus' sayin' posted by fuq at 6:15 PM on November 2, 2010
Yay! It's such a happy skeleton. A super-great one at that. posted by SteelyDuran at 5:47 PM on November 3, 2010
wow, that is an impressive knit! I am great at not finishing things, my local knit shoppe celebrates this in a UFO event. UnFinshed Objects. Hilarious. But the skeleton, is way impressive! posted by 8175309 at 11:01 PM on November 3, 2010
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