Dimensions and yarns vary
In a space of transit, four knitters work on a collective four-edged scarf: a safety blanket. The repetitive act of knitting becomes a ritual and the knitting piece a magical object, pushing bodies together in intimate and spontaneous connections and transforming the atmosphere of the space where the action takes place.
Safety Blanket is not only the act of creating a physical object, but everything that happens when our bodies are connected by a net that keeps on growing through our hands’ work. It is time and people passing by in contrast to our slow activity. It is our conversations, the interactions of bystanders and viewers with the performers when they are invited to sit and talk, to knit, or to be taught how to.
Through the intrinsically marginal act of knitting and the spontaneity of the performance, Safety Blanket brings up questions regarding the expectations of female presence in society, academia and the art world, as well as questioning what forges community.
We aim to re-evaluate hidden, embodied, communal, generational and gendered knowledge, often left aside or looked down upon. We work towards transforming spaces through intimate actions with a philosophy of learning from each other, and we understand collaboration as key to creating an open community between artists and the public. We believe that these banal activities are, in fact, performative actions that lead us to establish powerful nets of intimacy.