What is YBLA?
Yarn Bombing Los Angeles (YBLA) is a group of guerrilla knitters who have been collaborating since 2010. YBLA stages public installations and performances to help expand the definition of public art to embrace street art, including self-initiated, ephemeral urban interventions utilizing fiber material. Collaborative art making, community building, public outreach, blurring boundaries between contemporary art practices, graffiti and craft are integral components to YBLA's practice.
The group organically grew out of a participatory yarn bombing event organized by the Arroyo Arts Collective in Los Angeles and became an entity of its own during the six month process of putting together Yarn Bombing 18th Street, an interlacement of site specific installations featuring 65 local and international knit graffiti artists. YBLA projects range from the day long urban intervention outside MOCA's seminal Art in the Streets show to conducting knit graffiti workshops for LAUSD teachers, students and their parents.
YBLA's current project CAFAM Granny Squared that brings together an internatonal community of 275 artists and crafters to cover the façade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum with granny squares in May 2013 is the collective's largest and most expensive endeavor to date.
For a brief video featuring current YBLA projects please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UofiidpN_qA
The group organically grew out of a participatory yarn bombing event organized by the Arroyo Arts Collective in Los Angeles and became an entity of its own during the six month process of putting together Yarn Bombing 18th Street, an interlacement of site specific installations featuring 65 local and international knit graffiti artists. YBLA projects range from the day long urban intervention outside MOCA's seminal Art in the Streets show to conducting knit graffiti workshops for LAUSD teachers, students and their parents.
YBLA's current project CAFAM Granny Squared that brings together an internatonal community of 275 artists and crafters to cover the façade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum with granny squares in May 2013 is the collective's largest and most expensive endeavor to date.
For a brief video featuring current YBLA projects please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UofiidpN_qA
What is yarn bombing?
Yarn bombing is a relatively recent form of street art that employs colorful displays of knits or crochet and other fiber material instead of paint in public space.
Some engage in yarn bombing as a fun and creative way to use up left over yarn, others consider it an urban intervention to personalize otherwise cold and impersonal spaces or to make socio- political statements. Humor is often a major component of yarn bombing, which by its nature embodies contradictory idiosyncrasies within itself.
In its seemingly odd juxtaposition of knitting and graffiti, often associated with opposing concepts such as female, granny, indoors, domestic, wholesome and soft vs. male, enfant terrible, outdoors, public, underground and edgy, the practice of yarn bombing redefines both genres. Yarn bombing transforms knitting from a domestic endeavor to public art, recontextualizing both knitting and graffiti, both of which are marginalized creative endeavors that fall outside “high art.”
Like all public art, be it sanctioned commissions or self-initiated, unauthorized formats, yarn bombing imposes a particular aesthetic onto an environment that may be appreciated by some, but may not appeal to everyone. Yet, yarn bombing is necessarily ephemeral due to its use of materials and perhaps the most environmentally friendly graffiti because it can easily be removed with a pair of scissors and no damage left behind.
Some engage in yarn bombing as a fun and creative way to use up left over yarn, others consider it an urban intervention to personalize otherwise cold and impersonal spaces or to make socio- political statements. Humor is often a major component of yarn bombing, which by its nature embodies contradictory idiosyncrasies within itself.
In its seemingly odd juxtaposition of knitting and graffiti, often associated with opposing concepts such as female, granny, indoors, domestic, wholesome and soft vs. male, enfant terrible, outdoors, public, underground and edgy, the practice of yarn bombing redefines both genres. Yarn bombing transforms knitting from a domestic endeavor to public art, recontextualizing both knitting and graffiti, both of which are marginalized creative endeavors that fall outside “high art.”
Like all public art, be it sanctioned commissions or self-initiated, unauthorized formats, yarn bombing imposes a particular aesthetic onto an environment that may be appreciated by some, but may not appeal to everyone. Yet, yarn bombing is necessarily ephemeral due to its use of materials and perhaps the most environmentally friendly graffiti because it can easily be removed with a pair of scissors and no damage left behind.
How can I join the yarn bombers of Los Angeles?
If you're in Southern California, please feel free to drop in on one of our monthly stitch n bitch meetings every third Saturday of the month, 2-5pm at the Craft and Folk Art Museum at 5814 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036.
Also check our calendar to see if we have any upcoming events to attend or sign up for, or better yet organize an event that we can all participate in.
What if I can't knit or crochet?
While you can probably learn to knit or crochet during our meetings, some of us don't actually knit or crochet at all! Many yarn bombers use recycled sweaters and other found materials that they collage together.
Also check our calendar to see if we have any upcoming events to attend or sign up for, or better yet organize an event that we can all participate in.
What if I can't knit or crochet?
While you can probably learn to knit or crochet during our meetings, some of us don't actually knit or crochet at all! Many yarn bombers use recycled sweaters and other found materials that they collage together.
What happens in stitch n bitch meetings?
Our monthly stitch n bitch meetings are an occasion to gather, work together, exchange ideas, tips, materials, learn new techniques, see old friends, meet new people, come up with new projects etc. While most people bring along a project to work on, some people just show up to network and be inspired.
Snapshots of our previous stitch n bitch meetings can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ttactSiSz8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwueVd0ljlw.
For more information feel free to contact yarnbombing18@gmail.com or visit our facebook group Yarn Bombing Los Angeles.
Snapshots of our previous stitch n bitch meetings can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ttactSiSz8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwueVd0ljlw.
For more information feel free to contact yarnbombing18@gmail.com or visit our facebook group Yarn Bombing Los Angeles.
