Yarn bombing cities with knitted graffiti art

Madga Sayeg's Busbomb  

As cities grow larger and more anonymous a rogue cult of Guerrilla Knittas are working to improve the intimacy of the urban landscape one stitch at a time. The movement of graffiti artists, dubbed ‘Yarn bombers’, have abandoned spray cans in favour of knitting needles and balls of wool.

Yarn bombing is a form of street art where rebellion and knitting needles come in equal measures. Depending on how you see it, yarn bombers have a slightly diffused aim from their aerosol cousins and are donating their works back to the public space. In the process they hope to brighten up the everyday greys of cityscapes, trees, signs and fences.

The operation is still considered vandalism and its tactical knitters are often forced to create their colourful sleeves for fixed objects under the cover of darkness. In the process, they use dozens of balls of wool and countless needles for what is sometimes referred to as ‘Grandma art’.

Although experts pinpoint the beginnings of the movement to the US, the phenomenon has spread to the darkest corners of the world in a whimsical, expressive and subversive art. Definitive experts of Yarn bombing, Canadian based women Mandy Moore and Leanne Pralin, published a book on the subject. Their 2009 book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti gave the movement a manifesto.

In an interview with feminist mag Shameless, Pralin said that although knitting is considered a pastime for oldies, the craft is being taken up in droves by youngsters. “Stitch work and women have a long, complicated history. I think that we are now living in a time in history where it is possible to reclaim stitch work as a method of expression that is uniquely our own,” she said.

Their DIY book teaches readers how to create fuzzy additions for street fixtures, mastering ninja-like stealth and offers tips on how to design your own yarn graffiti tags. On their blog Yarn bombing, the Canadian knitters examine the breadth of the movement and the world’s practitioners, of whom there are surprisingly many.

Magda Sayeg, for one, is widely considered the mother of Yarn bombing, and recently visited Australia for the Art & About Festival Sydney. Her handmade knitted creations adorned Sussex lane at the time for the Laneway Art program.

Her works gives the urban landscape a warm and comforting aesthetic, adding a textural quality to traditional street art. The Texan is the founder of Knitta Please, one of the first guerrilla knitting crews, and her installations have been featured at American contemporary arts festivals South By Southwest and the Austin City Limits Festival. Sayeg has also been commissioned to create an installation of Etsy.com’s headquarters in Brooklyn, and at the Williamsburg Bridge with the New York City Department of Transportation.

In an interview with The Guardian, Sayeg said, "It's about making people smile and bringing art out of the galleries so everyone can appreciate it. I love it when a postman, who has driven past the same stop sign every day, suddenly sees it tagged with knitting and emails me to say how awesome it is.”

To The Telegraph, she expressed similar sentiments. "Using knitting as a form of graffiti is a crazy phenomenon and there is no other hobby like it," she explained.

Though its founders are mostly international, Australia’s graffiti-art scene can lay claim to their own expert crotchetiers. Perth is home to yarn bomber Captain Plaknit, who created a knitted installation for his local council, erected at the Propel Youth Arts WA office for the City in Bloom weekend in 2011.

Melbourne’s own yarn bomber ‘Bali’ conjures up cosies for bike racks and bus stops and runs guerrilla knitta collective Twilight Taggers. She yarn bombs the city of Melbourne in her spare time, and her work was featured this year at the International Yarn Bombing Day at Federation Square under the Light Hearts installation.

The resurgence of knitting as a form of ‘craftivism’, once considered a decidedly twee pastime for Nannas, is part of a worldwide trend recognising the unique practice of hand-made, in opposition to the mass-produced. While stumbling forth into modernity’s technological mass, sometimes it’s nice to feel a little special.