Yarn Bombing: Claiming Rhetorical Citizenship in Public Space

Maureen Daly GogginArizona State University, USA

Rhetoric in Society 4

CopenhagenJanuary 16, 2013

Yarn bombing is also known as:

yarn storming yarn graffiti

urban crochet and knitting

guerilla crochet and knitting

street or outsider yarn art

Iceland

Canada

New Zealand

“where the things we make bear knowledge of the world, on par with the

words we speak”

Davis Baird, “Thing Knowledge—Function and Truth,” Techné 6.2 (Winter 2002): 13.

Davis Baird “Thing Knowledge”

“A drawing on the street is similar to a letter. It proves that there is a writer.”

A1one (a.k.a. Tanha) Tehran, Iran

A1one 2011 (a.k.a Tanha), Tehran

Change and making the world a better place can be done with a grin instead of a grimace, a whisper instead of a bellow. What we do

can alter the way people look at

their world. How it alters it is up to them. That’s really our point.

Deadly Knitshade, Knit the City: A Whodunnkit Set in London (Chichester: Summersdale, 2011) 124.

Deadly Knitshade on Yarn Storming

Rather than bringing revolution to the front door and kicking it open, as their parents may have hoped to do, these independent [DIY] makers are using the disarming and unassuming aesthetic of DIY craft’s remixed domestic creativity to make subversive statements about the world in which they live.Dennis Stevens, “DIY: Revolution 3.0—Beta,” Craft Council (September 16, 2009).

Dennis Stevens on DIY Movement

Iraqi War Protest in Denmark

Pink M.24 Chaffee Tank April 2006

by Marianne Jorgensen

Nikolaj Contemporary Art

CenterCopenhagen

Anti-Nuclear Yarn Bombing in Germany

“No thanks” is the message

by Strick and Liesel

2011

Political Decision Protest

Yarn Bombing Political Decision Protest

Opposition to tramway expansion in Edinburgh

Unknown Crochet

artistSeptember 2012

Germany

2011

by Strick & Liesel

Message “Redundant” or

“Fired”on “throw-up” tag

Yarn Bombing Political Economic Protest

Yarn Bombing Political Economic Protest

By Knit Riot Collective

Los Feliz, CA June 2012

“HOMEsweetHOME” protest

KnitRiot Economic Protest Yarnboming

Highland Park School June 2011

PATH Homeless Center, East Hollywood December 2011

Québec Student Strike and Yarnbombing

Above left Students hold hand knitted protest signs March

22, 2012Above right Red knitted Protest quilt (stitched 1/2012-

8/2012) Hung September 2012

“The struggle is only starting”

Fracking near Blackpool, England Nov. 2012

Protest for Environmental Sustainability

Yarn bombing at St. Annes Square,

Blackpool , November 28, 2012

“Against Water F.O.W.L.E.R.S. Awareness Campaign”

Knitting Nannas Against Gas

AustraliaA Protest (above) & Getting ready for a

protest (right)

Protest for Sustainability

Protest against Logging in Alberta, Canada

Protest against Tire Burning July

3, 2012Saifi Village, Beirut, Lebanon

Bokja Designers and Berirut Citizens

“We are tyred”

Today’s activists must … recognize that their participation in public life will make a critical difference in their world. By acting proactively and with tactical and strategic wisdom, social change activists can bring a degree of social and economic justice . . . that has for too long been deferred.

Brooklyn, NY “Play Me I’m Yours”

Shaw, Randy. The Activist’s Handbook rev. 2nd ed. 1996. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2001. 279.

Graz, Austria

Yellow Springs, OH

Iasi, Romania

Velbert, GermanyAlberta, Canada

Thank you!