Skull and Bones
Transcending the Material”, a mixed media piece that I [Ben Cuevas] created and installed while in residence at the Wassaic Project (an arts collective and residency program located in New York state). The piece was exhibited at the Wassaic Project Summer Music and Arts Festival.
"Ben conceives of the piece as a reference to material culture and Wassaic’s local history (The Borden Company had a condensed milk factory in Wassaic) and a meditation on transcendence.” -Bora Mici
That's cool.
Skeletons. We've all got one. They're made out of bones... usually. Sometimes though, they're made out of yarn, and sometimes, just sometimes, they sit in the Lotus position atop cans of evaporated milk, but not usually. Usually, they just keep us from being gelatinous meat piles. As a work of art, this is oddly serene, beautiful, and yet, still disquieting. As a framework for muscles and protector of organs... not so much. Yarn based skeletal systems, while warm and cozy in the winter, won't do much as far as keeping you upright or saving your heart and lungs from a fatal Nerf® dart to the chest.
Pearl, the skeleton, is knitting a DNA scarf. The scarf is unfinished and the yarn is coming from her tailbone. This represents a paradox-does our DNA create our destiny or does our destiny create our DNA and who we are? At the same time the piece is whimsical; it is a full size knitted skeleton after all. The piece captures both the seriousness and silliness of life. The title of Just One More Row captures this whimsy; it is a phrase often said by knitters to stall for a few more minutes of craft time. -Twilight Kallisti
Pearl here, (why not Purl?) is a little bit more of a Stable Mable than Milk Bones up there. She's actually knit over an existing medical training skeleton. She's a colorful one too, and seems extremely cheerful about deconstructing herself to make that scarf. It is whimsical. And what better image than a knitting skeleton to realize that yeah, life is serious, but you shouldn't take it too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.
"These are completely unique designs, with no pattern to follow and nothing else like it. The crossbones are stuffed with poly-fill. The skull is not stuffed, but hollow, with a sturdy yet malleable feel.
This item would make the perfect Halloween decoration, be it as a table setting, a door hanging or all year round decor."
It would be totally cute as a table decoration. If you want him... too bad. He's already sold.
Why am I posting about skeletons and knitting? Because it's Halloween time and well, the theme of the blog, you know... yarn related stuff. Also though, I'm probably going to be having some extremely major bone surgery fairly soon, so I thought it'd be appropriate. I'll post more about that later. For now, expect more Halloween related items.
Skeletons, Vampires, Ghost, Goblins... real life can be so much scarier.
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