Crochet my chair By Eveline Keijser Gerrit Rietveld Academie 2011
In January 2010 I started crocheting all the chairs and tables of our classroom. This resulted into a explosion of colored yarns taking over this installalation of furniture. Taking the installation apart it left me with several chairs all crocheted in a different way. The became pieces of their own, giving me the inspiration of working with chairs and crochet in a new way. These chairs as I used in the installation all became like blank canvasses to me. As I painter would use his paint and brush, I used my yarn and needle to crochet chairs as a product but as well as abstract pieces. With this thick woolen yarn I started taking over the form of these chairs. During the process of crocheting I found new ways and solutions of connecting the legs en the seat of the chair together. Acknowledging that I could now change any shape of the chair as I wanted. By using this thick material I could finally show the beauty of the crochet stitch and look for ways to create this streamlined pattern within the design.
After producing four exactly the same designs it was time for me to take a bit of distance from chairs. I wanted to work with the material in an autonomous way and started studying still life paintings. As this “painter� I talked about uses his brush and paint while looking at this composition, in what way will it affect this image when I crochet the same piece. How does it influence the image when it becomes a solid form. When the transition between two objects is no longer visible.
Still looking to paintings during my process I decided to take it even further. What if I start to finish a painting. This funny little painting of a pigs head triggered me to see if I could give this pig its body back. This hanging installation caused the painting of the head to spin which resulted into the “head� examining its own body.
During a visit to India were it felt like I was released of ordinary furniture I became aware of Indian women and the way they carry their child. It was an eye-opening experience to see that they didn’t need any baby chairs or car seats to protect their child from any harm. Reflecting back onto western norms I decided to react on this phenomenon.
In this last series of chairs I worked with crocheting in a different material. Up till now I had tried to crochet a suit for a chair that came closest to the form of the chair itself. All of a sudden it seemed unnecessary to do so, as we “people� in daily life do not always wear tight fitted clothes. So why should a chair? What if a chair would fancy a different garment, perhaps one of another chair.