Customer Reviews

Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting

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This is a museum exhibition catalog--an overblown, overdone one--that was first published in conjunction with a 2007 exhibition, RADICAL LACE & SUBVERSIVE KNITTING, that was organized by the Museum of Arts & Design (New York City). The first 142 pages (1-2, 3-4, etc.) are printed on uncut, doubled pages (with blank inside pages) that make the catalog book twice as thick and heavy as it ought to be!

There isn't much lace, unless you count the lacey-look items like the laser-cut metal shovels, flamework glass sculpture, cut-out steel wall decorations, and paper-doily constructions. Quite a few items have some knitted or crocheted elements, but they don't strike me as particularly "subversive"--they're just nice textile art. Things that I particularly liked were the enlarged photos of Althea Merback [Crome]'s tiny sweaters, and Janet Echelman's giant fiber and steel bowl that calls to mind a particularly beautiful radio telescope.

The short discussions of the included textile artists and their current aesthetics do add considerable value to this catalog. Included artists are Liz Collins, Freddie Robins, Erna van Sambeek, Yoshiki Hishinima, Barbara Zucker, Ruth Marshall, Annet Couwenberg, Janet Echelman, Dave Cole, Althea Merback [Crome], Hank Wolvers, Niels van Eijk, Bennett Battaile, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Cat Mazza, Francoise Dupre, Shane Waltener, Cal Lane, Piper Shepard, Elana Herzog, Eugene van Veldhoven, Hildur Bjarnadottir,, Carson Fox, Hilal Sami Hilal, Edward Mayer, Sheila Pepe, and Anne Wilson.

This is a book for textile artists and art historians. A better choice for a crafter who is intrigued by unusual knitted or crocheted art projects would be Astounding Knits!: 101 Spectacular Knitted Creations and Daring Feats, or Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti.

I was disappointed in this book. As a traditional lace knitter I was anxious to see what was being done currently. Nothing appealed to me in the entire book. This is of course a matter of taste; it reminded me of "modernized" editions of Shakespeare, or operas that don't work at all.

knittingduck

I wish I could have seen the Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting show live! But since I couldn't, having the book is the next best thing. Its an exciting array of working outside the box and stretching the limits of wonderful possibilities! Lets your imagination run wild and free!

lot's of information about different artists, but not what i was looking for under "lace" "knitting". this is a book about contemporary art.