The artist that I chose to focus on is Magda Sayeg, a street
artist and the founder of the street art group, Knitta, Please. Knitta is
a group that focuses on yarn graffiti, a type of graffiti that employs knitted
or crocheted yarn instead of spray-paint, markers, or stencils. Yarn graffiti is also
referred to as yarn bombing or guerrilla knitting.
Sayeg has taken knitting, something that is “traditionally
supposed to be on bodies, [on children], and on people you love,”1 and
has taken it outside to decorate urban architecture.
One of the most popular works that Sayeg has created is the yarn graffiti on a bus in Mexico City. It took four days and about six people working on the project to complete the masterpiece.
My
personal favorite piece of art by Sayeg is a piece that reads “PLAN AHEAD.”2
This is a banner-style piece that is hung from one end of a bridge to another.
The reason that I like it so much is because it encompasses irony and cleverness
and creates street art that is not only thought provoking and inspirational,
but also funny.
Sayeg explains her
work as a form of fuzzy rebellion against the dreariness of grey neighborhoods.
She recognizes that her form of graffiti isn’t “as tough as others”1
and also recognizes the importance that yarn bombing has on the street art
community. Yarn bombing creates an outlet for people who are interested in
creating public displays of art to be able to create something that doesn’t
deface property and that can easily be taken off. Yarn bombing brings knitting, something that
has been considered dainty and nurturing, into a world that is anything but.
Magda Sayeg has been hailed
and praised by almost anyone that has seen her work. Mostly all of her early
work was illegal and she could have easily gotten in trouble for it. She says
since it was so “sweet and cute,” no one thought that she deserved to be arrested.
Sayeg claims that if she received mostly negative comments, she wouldn’t do
what she does.3
Sayeg has taken her world and literally,
reshaped it to reflect a world that she’d want to live in. She has taken the
role of director and has been able to present her emotions and her desire for
fun without compromising her initial mission for her work: “to make street art
a little more warm and fuzzy.”4 As Maggie Humm would say,
Magda Sayeg has become an auteur of sorts. Humm describes an “auteur” as a
director that is able to have her ideas shine through, despite the interference
of patriarchy5. Sayeg and her knitting needle clad girl gangs invaded the
male dominated world of street art, one cozie at a time. If that isn’t
auteurism at it’s coolest, then I don’t know what is.
Sources
- YouTube video by Sarah Gonzalez
- Magdasayeg.com
- YouTube video by Longlake Lugano
- 'Houston, Texas Cries Out 'Knitta Please'' by Flash News
- “Author/Auteur: Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film” by Maggie Humm
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