Two artists use photography to blend themselves in with the environment. Liu Bolin (below) is a Chinese artist whose “invisible” pieces are part of collections titled Hiding in the City and Camouflage. Bolin created the works to protest the actions of the Chinese government, who shut his studio down in 2005. He paints his whole body to match his surroundings and then takes a photo of himself, spending sometimes up to 10 hours on one photo.

Desiree Palmen is Dutch artist who also uses photography to produce her camouflage art. To create the site-specific suits, (including the one below), Palmen photographs a precise location and then paints the image of the place onto a suit by hand. A person then wears the finished suit and poses in the original location – trying to blend into the space as much as possible.

Urban Camouflage, a project conceived by German artists Sabina Keric and Yvonne Bayer in 2007, deals with the question of how to camouflage oneself and one’s identity in the commercial space. The artists wear costumes constructed from materials found in a store (usually big-box stores) to blend into the surroundings.

Here’s a video to see the camouflage in action:

To make urban environments more aesthetically pleasant, Iikka Airas and Markus Wikas designed artificial foliage in their project Camouflage to physically conceal fencing and scaffolding at construction sites.

I last posted about the arrival of spring, but according to the Weather Network, we’ll be getting some flurries late next week (ouch – I just took the bike out of storage this weekend!)

In any case, I thought I’d share these photos I took of these knitted toques used as advertising in Montreal. Having been alerted about them, we were on the lookout for these pieces as we walked about during the city’s Nuit Blanche festival at the end of February.

Here’s a video of the toques being put on the advertising columns (by the way, the toques are made of wool stretched over an aluminum frame). You’ll spot where some of  the columns were located:

The toques and knitting in general have been used by le Lait (Quebec’s milk company) to conjure up cozy feelings and nostalgia associated with drinking milk as part of their winter 2010 campaign. A grandmother who knits is the star of the TV spots (most in French and one in English – as well as her knitted motorcycle.) Apparently it took a dozen knitters and 500 working hours to complete set decor and costumes used in the TV ads. More photos can be found here and here.

While the link between grandmothers and knitting is not so novel (although it was done in a playful, ironic manner), what’s interesting are the methods used to link milk and knitting in interactive ways: online, within bus shelters and in metro (subway) stations, and social events out. Bus shelters around Montreal dressed with a knitted toque have jacks where passerbys can plug in their headphones and listen to comforting stories related to milk. Or a free Facebook and iPhone app called Tricot Mania where you knit stitches to score points and create a superhero costume for a milk-drinking septuagenarian. The reconfortant.com website also features a create-your-own knitted portrait page.

I’m not sure if the toques and ads are still running, but if so be on the lookout for them. There’s no doubt that knitting has moved beyond being a private hobby to a social outing, but made me wonder, to what extent has it entered public (or private) space when companies start using it in their ad campaigns? And what does this mean for the future of knit graffiti…

Winterlude 2010 has arrived! It’s been busy behind the scenes, so we’ll be giving you little photo montages of what happened pre-festival in the next few posts and then show you what’s happening in real time. As well as some upcoming profiles of people who have contributed to the Project.

The first deadline for receiving the cozies was February 1st so lots of urban cozy contributions came rushing in: from drop-offs at wabi-sabi to Express Post mail and to meeting up with people in downtown Ottawa.

A couple nights before the festival, a few of us got to tagging the contributions with a card that listed the person’s name and city of residence. We are superexcited to be displaying contributions from local makers, coast to coast across Canada (St. John’s, Newfoundland to Burnaby, B.C. and in between) and from the UK, Europe, Africa and more to come from the US and Australia.

We loved how the Bibliophile Yarn Bombing Collective  labelled their urban cozies with two Dewey Decimal numbers: 746.43 and 027.571.  We’ll have to check what kind of books those numbers correspond with! Does anyone know what these numbers mean?

Off to install and tag the other contributions…

The Winterlude 2010 press conference took place last Tuesday at noon at one of the festival sites, Confederation Park. One of the highlights of this year’s festival is, you guessed it, the Winterlude Urban Cozy Project!

The National Capital Commission (NCC) invited us to take part and install a temporary cozy around a tree at the site. We put up cozies that we had already received as well those from cozy-makers extraordinaires Barb and Robyn who installed some of their work in progress.

There was a lot of curiousity from passers-by walking through the park, and some asked questions. One passerby loved the idea and asked how she could donate bags of yarn that she was no longer using to our intervention. Another asked if the unfinished objects tucked away at the back of her closet could be used. (We answered, of course!)

Thanks to CBC Radio and CBC television for covering this project.

We’re excited to be bringing you a project that combines community, local and international collaboration, skill-sharing, a social atmosphere, a transformation of the city, and the upcycling of materials into wearable items to help out local organizations.

We’re getting closer to opening night!

Performances at Traflagar Square near the Fourth Plinth. In celebration of Antony Gormley’s One & Other Project (via Deadly Knitshade’s Flickr stream)

In line with last Thursday’s royal theme, I thought I’d share some upcoming, really innovative knit-related events happenings in London, UK this summer/early fall.

Last week, two knitters, Marian and Alix, occupied the top of the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square as part of artist Antony Gormley’s One & Other public space project (on until October 14).  Gormley has called on the public to enter a draw in which they may be selected to get atop the Plinth as a “living monument” and do whatever they want. If you’re heading to London before the end of the project, you may want to enter the draw (anyone can enter!)

Space Invader at Banksy’s Cans Festival last September 2008, London

 On Sunday August 1st, if you’re in London, head over to the Tunnel, hidden below the Waterloo station on Leake St, SE1 for the city’s first gritting (graffiti + knitting)  event. Knitted or crocheted pieces will be used to decorate the the tunnel alongside graf artists who’ll be spraying and painting their own interpretations.  Judging from the awesome work and atmosphere created in the same tunnel  at the Cans Festival last year organized by Banksy (which I was lucky enough to catch when living in London last year), this fusion event looks like the place to be (via iKnit).

Pom pom table hosted by Pom Pom International at iKnit weekender, September 2007, London

Speaking of iKnit, the Vauxhall-based knitting store, check out their official iKnit 2009 weekender on September 11th and 12th with appearances by Debbie New and more special guests yet to be announced. I was able to check the 2007 edition with Debbie Stoller and 2008 edition with Stephanie Pearl-MacPhee and they were quite fun!

For all those heading over to her royal majesty’s territory in the near future, check out my upcoming post on crafty, creative and music city guide to London.

Oh how I miss Spitalfields Market! It’s always buzzing with things to do from – having lived right beside it last year, there was never a shortage of activities ranging from visiting food and jewelery stalls, checking out animals at the petting zoos, to the annual pancake race. It looks like Thursdays are now reserved for tango tutorials followed by dancing in the public space of the open-market area. (Perhaps a great idea for Ottawa?)

(via Londonist)