OLEK
- Joséphine Hengstwerth
- May 2, 2020
- 2 min read
Polish born artist Agata Oleksia aka Olek has based their practice around crochet by covering objects, buildings and people in their crafted work. The crochet is characterised by fluorescent or grayscale camouflage pattern, focusing on feminism, sexuality and communication combined with cultural or political messages.
A popular example of Olek’s work is the Wall Streets charging bull statue by Arturo Di Modica which they covered in a crocheted cosy over night and was eventually ripped off by a street cleaner. Other works include a Swedish house fully covered in yarn, a 6-by-46-foot blanket in fluorescent pink with Hillary Clintons face next to the hashtag #imwithher, to show Olek’s support for Clinton in the 2016 election, and more. They continuously travel across the globe creating crocheted work relating to the places they visit with the help of local volunteers. Olek describes their medium as
“…a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and its systems and psychology. The connections are stronger as one fabric as opposed to separate strands, but, if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart. Relationships are complex and greatly vary situation to situation. They are developmental journeys of growth, and transformation. Time passes, great distances are surpassed and the fabric which individuals are composed of compiles and unravels simultaneously.” (https://culture.pl/en/artist/olek).
Apart from very public installations, some of their art is more gallery centred or performance based, for example, Olek’s crochet performance as part of the art mile for urban nation Berlin. Crocheters from all skill levels joined the performance to “transform the process of making art from a solitary act into a collective adventure.” (http://instagrafite.com/oleks-crochet-performance-part-of-the-art-mile-for-urban-nation-berlin/).
Olek’s work has become important to me in the early stages of my project when looking deeper into artists using yarn as their medium and how it can be used to make different statements. Their work initially gave me the idea of having my knitting project as part of a public installation, but was also inspiring when I developed the idea of a group performance and creating a social situation. Since they are using the help of volunteers from all around the world I thought in the same way to include women from the Birmingham women’s aid in my work. Aside from the direct influences Olek’s practice had on me I personally enjoy their work and have been following them on instagram for a while.
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