Everyday processes

"Dead Legs" (from here)

Celia Pym works with processes and ways of recording activities -- the holes in people's clothes, and the stories that accompany them; the ways of going about daily life.


She says: "I started knitting in 2001 as a warm up activity. To get me settled in my studio I would knit to ready my fingers and get thinking. I soon discovered that I would knit for whole afternoons. The warm up became my main project. The wool I had decided to knit with, at that time was red since the most exciting wool in the shop was red coloured. Since there was a red line on the subway system where I was living I would knit the red knitting riding the red line. After the red knitting, the next idea was to measure a journey around Japan. I was sponsored by the Gardner fellowship and made a journey to collect yarns from all over Japan, to knit everyday and to climb mountains. And in my everyday knitting I measured out the journey I was making. I work with process and ways of recording activities. Now I darn and am looking for holes in people’s clothes and the stories that accompany them; repairing these holes and returning the mended garments. It is a way to briefly make contact with strangers."


Two aspects of her work resonate with me: measuring a journey, and representing going about daily life... "making the invisible visible" in yet other ways...


Also, the idea of having a warm-up activity in the studio is really useful - obviously you do have to be careful it doesn't take over.