Traditional textile techniques used in contemporary ways – Part 1: Crochet

Many OCA textile students come to their studies after years of developing and becoming highly skilled in a range of traditional textile techniques. Mothers and grandmothers have often taught them, they have studied at night classes and gained City and Guilds qualifications. However some students can feel bemused and disappointed when these skills are apparently questioned by tutors and assessors. This can come about because there is a disconnect between the needs of the degree programme and a students conventional wisdom. I am therefore writing a series of blog posts that introduces a number of contemporary practitioners and their work. My hope is to widen the knowledge base of our textile students, broaden your outlook to different possibilities and encourage OCA textile students to create innovative engaging and contemporary textiles during their studies.
I am starting with crochet partly because I am a member of a community crochet group, crocheting on a weekly bases, but also because I think it is one of the most plastic of textile crafts. Very simply crochet can become any shape and size; it can grow in all directions with the simplest of tools – a hook.

So lets start at the deep end and how crochet has solved mathematical problems and illustrated the destruction of the world’s coral reefs. In 1997 a professor in mathematics, Dr. Daina Taimina solved a long-standing mathematical problem; she showed that it is possible to create a physical model to represent hyperbolic geometry. Many academics had previously believed it was impossible to make a physical model to demonstrate that an infinite number of lines can go through a single point and never join. Dr. Daina Tamina’s crochet structures not only solved this maths problem but also looked very like many natural structures including coral.
This is the reason why the science academic and writer Margaret Wertheim and her sister Christine who is a professor of art decided in 2005 to use crochet to bring to the attention of the world the destruction of coral reefs through global warming. The project had small beginnings and big ideas, aiming to bring together maths, marine biology, feminine handicraft and environmental activism. But when it became apparent that galleries with large spaces were interested in exhibiting the work, Margaret and Christine enlisted the help of volunteers. This became an opportunity to share information about the demise of the coral reefs, mathematics and textile craft by preceding the exhibitions with lectures and workshops, involving thousands of local people. Crochet coral reefs now pop up in galleries across the world going far beyond the expectations of the original facilitators.
This sense of crochet taking over and having a life of its own is very apparent in the work of Olek. The New York based artist describes crochet as a kind of madness where everything that enters her space comes out as crochet. Her work is a celebration of female anarchy where life and art become inseparable, entwining colour, life, humour, energy and a sense of wonder. Olek’s latest project ‘Our Pink House’ explores the journey both physical and psychological taken by over 21 million people in 2015 when they lost their homes due to war and conflict, leading them to travel sometimes-perilous journeys to start a new. Olek describes Our Pink House as a symbol of a bright future filled with hope. That women have the ability to recreate themselves, no matter how low life takes them they can get back on their feet and start a new. She state on her website “everybody should have a home.”

Another crochet master influenced by architecture, interactivity and a sense of fun is the Japanese born Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam who crochets playgrounds. Influenced by the architecture of Gaudi and the chance experience of children playing on some early textile forms led Toshiko to research where and how children in Tokyo played and interacted with each other. She found there was a need to create spaces for children to learn through play, grow emotionally and imaginatively – developing social skills, learning to cooperate and use their bodies. She made her first piece specifically for children in 1971. The works are mostly made by hand with some pieces incorporating mechanically knotted net. However the work always begins from her hands, as she works an image takes shape in her minds eye, then it is as if the image is telling her hands what to do. In her interview for the Huffington Post (28/11/2013) Toshiko explains that when she is using her hands her brain focuses assisting her to develop ideas and solve problems.
These are just a few of the many extraordinary practitioners who use crochet in their practice. I hope I have conveyed the scope of this traditional textile craft and inspired you to look at your own skills differently. If you don’t already crochet and would like to try there are numerous tutorials on YouTube including many about hyperbolic crochet.
Bibliography and further reading
Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by Diana Taimina, published by A K Peters/CRC Press (2009)
Artist Olek covers a house in Finland with pink crochet, Colossal http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/09/artist-olek-covers-a-house-in-finland-with-pink-crochet/
Crochet Coral Reef http://crochetcoralreef.org
Crochet Playgrounds by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, Colossal http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/07/crochet-playgrounds-by-toshiko-horiuchi-macadam/
Daina Taimina. Hyperbolic Crochet – some fibre for thoughts about art, math, crochet and all various threads in our lives. http://hyperbolic-crochet.blogspot.co.uk
Olek. http://oleknyc.com/home
Olek in the deep-end for crocheting underwater sculpture, Designboom http://www.designboom.com/art/olek-crochets-underwater-time-bomb-mexico-21-08-2014/
Playscapes http://www.play-scapes.com/play-art/playgrounds-by-artists/playground-crochet-by-toshiko-horiuchi/
Toshiko Horiuchi MaAdam on the crocheted playgrounds. The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/toshiko-horiuchi-macadam-playgrounds_n_2204079.html
The beautiful math of coral, Margaret Wertheim TED talk 2009 http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_wertheim_crochets_the_coral_reef?language=en
Working Woman in Red: A Portrait. Olek. https://vimeo.com/20993358