Week 9 posts
Lying in the name of postmodernity
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/writer-vs-fact-checker-this-time-its-personal/?scp=1&sq=Gideon+Lewis-Kraus&st=nyt

So telling the truth has gone by the wayside for good it seems. It doesn't matter any more. In this commentary from the New York Times, the author takes to task a writer for not accurately reporting facts in his story about Las Vegas; the writer says he did it because it makes a better story. Ira Glass on This American Life will be issuing an apology this week because in the story he presented a while ago about working conditions in Apple plants in China, the author said he witnessed certain events which it is now known he did not actually witness, though some or all of them did really happened. The whole world is being photoshopped so to speak (using that term to apply to words as well as pictures) as people report what they want to see in words that they want to use rather than reporting with accuracy and specificity. Mitt Romney's campaign says that it is mathematically impossible for any other candidate to win the nomination while at the time that he said this it really was mathematically possible, just not very likely. Words lose meaning when they are not used to say what they mean. I know that in the post-modern world words have meaning only by what the hearer knows them to mean but I think we have taken this a little too far. There are meanings that we can all agree on and to use words to mean something other than the agreed upon meaning is to lie. And in my opinion lying is not okay. I seem to be in a minority these days. A slightly different take on lying is when Rick Santorum justifies saying that in the Netherlands people are euthanized against their will because in his heart he believes it to be true.  (See end of this clip from Colbert Report - http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/410721/march-15-2012/march-15--2012---pt--3?xrs=share_fb). He is telling a lie but because he believes it in his heart it is okay? What does this make him? A good Christian or just, excuse me for saying it, stupid?

Feminist art

I have tried to deny that my art is feminist but after reading the articles in preparation for our feminist art lecture I see that I must give in. Though I like to see my art as just art, not women's art, the fact that it is knitting gives lie to this. Knitting is seen as a woman's activity so no matter how I view it, my work will be seen as such. Knitting has a grandmotherly aspect to it, which is both good, with grandmothers being seen as a source of comfort, and bad, as many people have received as gifts hand knit sweaters which were not well crafted or were ill-fitting or totally unfashionable. Hilary Clinton once claimed she didn't stay home and bake cookies (as I did for our International Women's Day class, another feminist statement of some sort I guess) and I'm sure she would never admit to knitting either.Old ladies knit. This image is I think changing with the help of such people as Karen Searle (http://www.karensearle.com/) and as more young people take up knitting. There is still plenty of tacky knitting around but the craft is also being incorporated into artworks that transcend the "oh my mother used to knit" image. My very large knit works do this by putting the knitting directly in your face. In some of the work the stitches are so large that you can't ignore them. Unlike in a sweater which we take for granted as a knit fabric, in my big knitting each stitch counts. The process is more visible. People find the Giant Shawl so impressive, yet it is only 38 stitches wide and 160 rows long, not very much knitting compared to what goes into a sweater. It's just that each stitch is so visible. I also see this piece as interactive knitting for non-knitters. It is a plaything, as you can see in the photos I have posted. It can be a source of comfort, a trait that I think is inherent in knitting, to many people at one time. This piece is currently on view at the LAFTA (Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists) exhibit at the LVAA  gallery at the Water Tower on River Road.

new art
One part of the lace installation outside Carnegie Center in New Albany in conjunction with  Tools of the Trade: Fiber Art by Bette Levy, Opening Fri. March 16, 6-8 pm
Yarn bombing is a relatively new idea of covering an environment with knitting or crocheting. In order to keep this installation tasteful, the requirement was that all the doilies be shades of white or off-white. They were purchased and volunteers attached them to permanent structures outside the Carnegie. With the help of Kathy Loomis, I attached doilies to this tree at the side entrance to the center. A question was raised as to whether this use of the doilies demeans the work of the women who made them. Bette maintains that she found it demeaning that they were being sold in junk stores for only a dollar or two and that this use  celebrates the work.