Auction #8: Valentines Falls Away Like Memories

November 8th, 2009

Everybody Knows by Emily WagnerEverybody Knows
by Emily Wagner

12 ounces of handspun yarn. Several kinds of wool, uncarded locks, mohair, silk, milk fiber, bamboo, cashmere, sparkle, and paper.

Based On:
“Valentines” by Shira Lipkin

This auction has ended. Thanks to everyone who bid. Please check the front page for more auctions, going on through the first week of December, 2009.

When I read Shira’s story “Valentines” the image that immediately struck me was at the end, with the paper flying around the room in snowy drifts. I wanted to find a way to keep the protagonist’s observations together for her, and because I tend to think in fiber, yarn suggested itself to me. The more I thought about it the more I realized that this yarn had three sections, one for each of the Valentines, and from there I saw that the foods eaten at each place could be represented by the colors of the fiber. I gathered several different types of fiber, shredded several copies of the story, and carded them all together on a borrowed drum carder. I also hand wrote several of the lines from the notebook in the story and worked out how to spin these lengths of paper into and around the yarn. In a strange bit of synchronicity, the paper I chose for this piece of the yarn came from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which, Shira informed me, is strange, because she actually meant for the story to be set in Vegas, but decided not to make it obvious in the text. When I spun the yarn (single ply) bits of the story would fall and flutter and fly around my wheel, leaving my work space every bit as paper-covered as the character’s apartment at the end of the story. This yarn will change as you use it or wear it; the paper is going to continue to fall out a little at a time, much like memories.

Emily Wagner

Everybody Knows Everybody Knows Everybody Knows Everybody Knows Everybody Knows Everybody Knows Everybody Knows

Story, Artist, Author: , ,
Filed under Auctions, Interfictions 2, Mixed Media, Object Art, Visual Art | Comments (4)

4 Responses to “Auction #8: Valentines Falls Away Like Memories”

  1. Interfictions 2 Reading and Concert, Friday! Boston! « Stackscene on November 11, 2009 11:15 am

    [...] And while we’re talking about Interfictions, you should know that the Interstitial Arts Foundation, who put out the book and are sponsoring the event, are also running an auction of art pieces inspired by the stories in the collection. You can see them all here, and, oh, right, this one’s mine. [...]

  2. K. Tempest Bradford on November 13, 2009 10:56 am

    I posted this on my blog but feel it needs to be here as well:

    I really like this piece, but I kept wondering if it would be possible to actually DO something with that yarn. Like knit it into a scarf or something. So I asked the artist, the faboo Emily Wagner, and she said:

    “You can TOTALLY knit with it. I mean, the paper is going to be falling out, but the yarn itself should be pretty structurally sound. I soaked it and stretched it on my swift when I was done skeining it up, which took FOREVER, BTW. :) I think it would be a really cool textural scarf, with lots of dropped stitches to show it off.”

    And here’s the thing: whatever anyone makes from this yarn, it will also be interstitial art. And the fact that the bits of paper will fall away adds this layer of transience to it. Like, no matter what, the Valentines will continue to fall away, until all that’s left is the memory within the yarn itself, in the person who made the yarn, and in the person who knitted it. There are just so many layers of meaning inherent in this art — layers that reveal themselves over time — that I can’t believe more people are not bidding on this. If you knit, you must bid.

  3. Shira Lipkin on November 15, 2009 12:18 am

    I am so in love with this. You don’t even *know*.The yarn colors are based on the different settings in the story, and – such rich and beautiful color!

    If I win it, it will be a scarf or trim a shawl. Any time the words slip out, I will nestle them into the crooks of trees, or tuck them into blank books.

    So much love.

  4. Chandra Peltier on November 15, 2009 4:37 pm

    My mom is a fiber artist, so I have grown up with a deep love for handmade fibers. I love these gorgeous colors and textures!

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A Taste Of Interfictions 2
“"Which is harder to get rid of: a wicked stepmother or a frog that insists you keep your promises to it?"

That was last week's winning question, and all I can see in my head is the shocked, inconsolable look on the contestant’s face when she got it wrong.”
From: Quiz by Eilis O'Neal

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