How yarn bombing grew into a worldwide movement Magda Sayeg
I’m a textile artist
most widely known for starting
the yarn bombing movement.
Yarn bombing is when you take
knitted or crocheted material
out into the urban environment,
graffiti-style –
or, more specifically,
without permission and unsanctioned.
But when I started this over 10 years ago,
I didn’t have a word for it,
I didn’t have any
ambitious notions about it,
I had no visions of grandeur.
All I wanted to see was something
warm and fuzzy and human-like
on the cold, steel, gray facade
that I looked at everyday.
So I wrapped the door handle.
I call this the Alpha Piece.
Little did I know that this tiny piece
would change the course of my life.
So clearly the reaction was interesting.
It intrigued me and I thought,
“What else could I do?”
Could I do something in the public domain
that would get the same reaction?
So I wrapped the stop sign
pole near my house.
The reaction was wild.
People would park their cars
and get out of their cars and stare at it,
and scratch their heads and stare at it,
and take pictures of it
and take pictures next to it,
and all of that was really exciting to me
and I wanted to do every stop sign pole
in the neighborhood.
And the more that I did,
the stronger the reaction.
So at this point I’m smitten.
I’m hooked.
This was all seductive.
I found my new passion
and the urban environment
was my playground.
So this is some of my early work.
I was very curious about this idea
of enhancing the ordinary,
the mundane, even the ugly,
and not taking away its identity
or its functionality
but just giving it a well-tailored
suit out of knitting.
And this was fun for me.
It was really fun
to take inanimate objects
and have them come to life.
So …
I think we all see the humor in this,
but –
(Laughter)
I was at a point where
I wanted to take it seriously.
I wanted to analyze it.
I wanted to know why I was letting
this take over my life,
why I was passionate about it,
why were other people
reacting so strongly to it.
And I realized something.
We all live in this
fast-paced, digital world,
but we still crave and desire
something that’s relatable.
I think we’ve all become desensitized
by our overdeveloped
cities that we live in,
and billboards and advertisements,
and giant parking lots,
and we don’t even complain
about that stuff anymore.
So when you stumble upon
a stop sign pole
that’s wrapped in knitting
and it seems so out of place
and then gradually – weirdly –
you find a connection to it,
that is the moment.
That is the moment I love
and that is the moment
I love to share with others.
So at this point, my curiosity grew.
It went from the fire hydrants
and the stop sign poles
to what else can I do with this material.
Can I do something big
and large-scale and insurmountable?
So that’s when the bus happened.
This was a real game changer for me.
I’ll always have a soft spot
in my heart for this one.
At this point, people
were recognizing my work
but there wasn’t much out there
that was wrapped in knitting
that was large-scale,
and this definitely was the first
city bus to be wrapped in knitting.
So at this point, I’m experiencing,
or I’m witnessing something interesting.
I may have started yarn bombing
but I certainly don’t own it anymore.
It had reached global status.
People from all over the world
were doing this.
And I know this because I would travel
to certain parts of the world
that I’d never been to,
and I’d stumble upon a stop sign pole
and I knew I didn’t wrap it.
So as I pursued
my own goals with my art –
this is a lot of my recent work –
so was yarn bombing.
Yarn bombing was also growing.
And that experience showed me
the hidden power of this craft
and showed me
that there was this common language
I had with the rest of the world.
It was through this granny hobby –
this unassuming hobby –
that I found commonality with people
that I never thought
I’d have a connection with.
So as I tell my story today,
I’d also like to convey to you
that hidden power can be found
in the most unassuming places,
and we all possess skills
that are just waiting to be discovered.
If you think about our hands,
these tools that are connected to us,
and what they’re capable of doing –
building houses and furniture,
and painting giant murals –
and most of the time
we hold a controller or a cell phone.
And I’m totally guilty of this as well.
But if you think about it,
what would happen
if you put those things down?
What would you make?
What would you create with your own hands?
A lot of people think
that I am a master knitter
but I actually couldn’t knit
a sweater to save my life.
But I did something
interesting with knitting
that had never been done before.
I also wasn’t “supposed to be” an artist
in the sense that I wasn’t
formally trained to do this –
I’m a math major actually.
So I didn’t think
this was in the cards for me,
but I also know that I didn’t
stumble upon this.
And when this happened to me,
I held on tight,
I fought for it and I’m proud to say
that I am a working artist today.
So as we ponder the future,
know that your future
might not be so seamless.
And one day, you might
be as bored as I was
and knit a door handle
to change your world forever.
Thank you.
(Applause)