To celebrate the arrival and stay of the Jamaican and American Olympic teams in the second city for London 2012, textile artist Sara Fowles and Stitches and Hos, a Birmingham-based motley crew of enthusiasts of all things knitted, crocheted and stitched, plan to cover the lower columns on the exterior of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery with knit graffiti.
BMAG Gets knitted
For the K2TOG (Knit 2 Together) project, a pallet of six colours (red, blue, white, yellow, green and black) will be used to create the piece. The colours are used on both of the teams’ national flags and are also the same colours used in the Olympic rings logo.
The project has been chosen to be part of Kalaboration, celebrating both the forthcoming 2012 Olympics and the 50th Anniversary of Jamaican Independence.
The piece will be knitted by the people of Birmingham, a colourful, personal welcome to the teams. Individuals, schools, colleges and community groups from across the region will be invited to contribute to the piece. The installation will be unveiled to coincide with the beginning of the Olympic Games, and will remain until the end of September.
Sara Fowles with Stitches and Hos are currently crowd-funding in order to raise the £2500 that is needed to realise the project. They wish to engage people from across the region to contribute to a visually spectacular piece welcoming the American and Jamaican teams to Birmingham. The project wishes to engage those who already knit, but also pass on traditional hand knitting skills to new people. The piece will be made by the people for the people.
The money raised will help fund workshops in order for the piece to be made. The project aims to work with schools, colleges and community groups in order to pass on the skill of hand knitting to those who have little experience of traditional crafts.
Those who are interested in knitting for the project should contact [email protected]
The money raised will also help to fund a pop-up shop in Birmingham City Centre, a relaxing drop-in space where anyone can come to contribute to the piece and find out about the project. Staff will be on hand to teach basic knitting skills and local workers can pop-in over their lunch hour or after work to knit a square or just a few rows.
Knit graffiti, also known as yarn bombing or guerilla knitting is the art of using items handmade from yarn to create street art. Thought to have started in America in around 2005, the phenomenon has spread worldwide. K2TOG will be Sara Fowles’ most ambitious knit graffiti project to date. In Summer 2011 she gave The River, the statue in the fountain in Victoria Square (affectionately known by locals as the Floozy in the Jacuzzi) a scarf. In December the Bullring was brought to a standstill as its iconic bronze bull was given a sparkly jumper for Christmas. The piece was seen by over a million people over the Christmas period.
Those wishing to donate to the project should visit: http://tinyurl.com/Knit2Together
For more information on the K2TOG project visit: http://knit2together.tumblr.com
