I’ve been lucky enough
to work on more exhibitions than I can count – as a staff member, as an intern,
as a consultant, and through collaboratives helping other institutions. Yet
after 22 years in the museum business, I’ve just participated in my first exhibition
as one of the crowd – a contributing audience member.
Here in London, I’m a
member of Stitch – a group of knitters that are a far cry from a bunch of
grannies. We participate in public art knit tagging, parade around town raising
funds for prostate cancer wearing knit moustaches, and celebrate knit in public
day with panache. I haven’t been able to make it to many meetings but always
look forward to reading the weekly email as it’s always funny and sometimes
contains great patterns (this week, a link to a wonderful tiny alligator pattern)
So when I read that
London’s Science Museum had teamed up with Stitch on the new Identity Exhibition that they were opening at the end of June, I was all eyes (and ears
and knitting needles). A knit museum project has my name all over it.
The call went out for
knitted self-portraits to be displayed in the exhibition. Now, the wording was
a little vague – it definitely sounded to me like there was a call out for
little self-portraits that would be a permanent part of the exhibition. I got
quite excited about participating, which then rubbed off on my daughters, aged
6 and 9 at the time. How fabulous, I thought, a lasting legacy in one of
London’s major museums that would last (for at least a couple of years) after
we’ve moved back to the United States.
So, on a train from
London to Brighton, the knitting needles came out and our naked knit selves
started to take shape. I knit the first doll and then thought about how to size
the rest. The first one ended up being the 9 year old and I made one with a
slightly longer body for me. This didn’t look too different to me, so the 6
year old ended up with shorter arms and legs. They look a bit like freaky
aliens in their naked form, but here we are.
Of course, the girls
wanted to do their own self portraits. So Laila picked a yellow shirt for her
doll (her favorite color) and I agreed to embroider her initial on the front.
As we all know, doing something with children takes about six times as long as
it does to do it by yourself (and comes out 6 times more creatively)…and this
project was no different. But Laila did a great job and found googly eyes and a
stick on mouth for her self-portrait and used those rather than sew on features.
She also decided that both she and I needed stickers for shoes. Here’s Laila
with her doll:
My husband and I don’t
have a very active social life, but June 30th happens to be one night we’ve
gotten a sitter and are going out to meet a friend downtown so we knew we
wouldn’t be able to see the display. Plus, the evening event was adults only,
so the girls were sad not to see their dolls proudly displayed at the Museum.
But we were proud of our dolls, might as well be part of the action and how
many self-portraits will they get, anyway?
Well, 259 to be exact – some from Australia, Abu
Dhabi, Israel and all reaches of London. I didn’t make it to the exhibition,
but my fellow knitters didn’t let me down and posted lots of pictures. Here’s a
photo of the case and a close up of me and Francesca (Laila is just to the left
of the Lucite box and out of site from this angle). Angry Francesca is up front
and center and I’m behind to the left in the replica blue hat I wear around all
winter.
And here are all 259 of us.
And what did I/we get
out of all of this? A definite appreciation for all the work that the public
does when contributing to something they know will be seen in an exhibition. My
family easily spent 15 hours knitting, planning, cutting and sewing our little
selves and ours aren’t nearly as ambitious as some. I am truly amazed and
inspired by some of the self portraits contributed for their creativity,
workmanship, and sense of humor.
The Stitch folks also
worked really hard and catalogued all dolls and labeled them all uniformly. The
staff at the Science Museum assured that there was a case up and running and
provided help with setting up the display. All and all, a great effort for something
that in the end was a small piece of one special night.
Even though my mini-me
is no longer there (but will be featured at upcoming Stitch events around
London – we’ll keep you posted) I will be going to see the identity exhibit
this week. Not only am I curious about the exhibition, but I do feel connected
to it and to the organization as I think this was a pretty funky and cool
partnership for the Science Museum to explore. I love exhibits that meld
science and art and architecture and craft and am glad to see that happening in
the city around me. Imagine how connected I would feel if my mini-me was
permanent? I’d be emailing all my friends and sending them to the Museum to
check me and my girls out!
More about the project can be found at the stitch blog. Check
out the self-portrait in process of knitting her/himself, dolls with glasses
and stuffed animals, and even one in roller skates (keep in mind, each doll is
approximately 6 inches tall). And be prepared to pull out the stops and
participate in an exhibition coming to a Museum near you!
5 comments:
I was very interested to read about the experience of contributing content from the audience viewpoint. Lesson to the museum: leave the mini-me's on display for some period of time! Your girls would have been thrilled to see "themselves" in a museum, and it might have changed their commitment to museums for the rest of their lives. That's part of the point of audience-contributed content--this was a missed opportunity!
I would have loved to see them at the science museum for longer. But I have faith that the Stitch folks will take good care of them and that they will be on display elsewhere in some fun contexts. Definitely would have caused us to have further visits to the Science Museum, though.
At the San Francisco Mobile Museum, we also write a blog post about each piece. So after the exhibit ends, it lives on in perpetuity... virtually.
I agree, it seems a massive shame they were only available for one night, adults only. This would have been a great opportunity for school groups etc too.
And what is with this museo/knitting link?? Seems lots of museum types also love knitting!
http://museumsandstuff.tumblr.com/
Love it! What fantastic creativity - and how engaged your family was in making their self-portraits! This kind of program could also have a great virtual component as well, extending the reach well beyond the physical museum! And I've shared it around with your former fellow colleagues from the Bay Area Discovery Museum
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