Woollen Wares

WORDS: Alma Viviers

Knitters around the world have taken up their needles and turned a craft that’s usually associated with jerseys and scarves into high design and art.

Local artist Barend de Wet uses crocheting and knitting to make arresting woollen artworks that challenge the boundaries between art and craft. In his latest exhibition at the Smac Art Gallery in Stellenbosch, entitled Green, wool takes on several forms, including wrapped canvasses, sculptures and installations.

For his canvasses, he knits random pieces in brightly coloured acrylic wool – either using needles or his knitting machine – which he then applies to the canvas as another artist might paint. “Through the process of stretching the pieces of knitting over my old painted canvasses, it becomes something interesting and new because you can get different densities, textures and line qualities,” he explains. “I see the knitting as working with a continuous line that results in a very intricate line sketch.”

Most interesting, perhaps, are the three sculptural pieces entitled Insincere Objects with Insincere Names (pictured here). The original wool constructions were cast in bronze and then painted in enamel, resulting in a fascinating contrast between the expectation of soft wool and the hard casts.

VISI foresees that works in wool, as well as knitting, weaving and crocheting, will take on a whole new dimension in 2011.

• Smac Art Gallery: 021 887 3607, www.smacgallery.com