a week ago
tomorrow, i was at the
museum of modern art (moma) in new york city.
there was so much to see,
and an above average crowd due to the monday holiday.
still, some things stood out and
are still stuck in
my mind.
upon entering one of the large rooms,
what stood out was a stationary guard
perched near a large heap of a canvas on the floor.
i don’t mean laid flat like a rug, i mean
an actual heap
folded and bent upon itself at odd angles
as if it had been dropped their by a passing giant.
the plaque on the wall read (in part):
“…in addition to the paiintings
stretched and hung on the wall,
eight more paintings are unstretched and stacked on the floor.”
“viewers are invited to unfold and examine these paintings,
which are indistinguishable from the ones on the wall
in terms of quality
and were produced at the same time.”
this is called a ‘participatory installation’
and that’s what a knitting pattern is, too.
a pattern, a good one at least,
invites you
to stretch it and
to restack all its different elements
in a very ‘participatory’ way.
that’s what makes knitting alive to me.
we know that we all do it differently, and
then we welcome
each other
to get right up close and touch it,
to feel what it is that we actually love about it.