This was my second foray into oversized knitting using cut up & tied together used plastic grocery bags. For this version I used a garter stitch and simple stripes of color to best show off the variety of bags I had encountered. I wrapped these large lengths of knit plastic around the water pipes in the building to draw attention to the utilitarian and functional aspects of the space typically not intended for viewing artwork. I focused on spaces that would ideally be ignored by a gallery going audience. The pipes on the ceiling were wrapped in insulation, most likely asbestos, and covered in a gnarly substance I simply call “Russell Dust” (named for the Russell Industrial Center that housed the gallery and my studio at the time). I unfortunately got quite sick and lost my voice for about a week after installing these pieces on the ceiling. I made sure to wear a respirator and tyvek suit when I de-installed them.

I use knitting with grocery bags as a medium to tap into typologies of domesticity and consumerism, signifiers or triggers of cultural memories and stories.

— Andy T