knit, purl and sow

My parents, my husband and I spent the night in NYC, while my brothers headed back to their houses. Terzo spent the night with his younger cousins at my brother's house in Brooklyn, so we had to go and pick him up this morning.

Since we were in Brooklyn, I insisted on being taken to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens to see the "Knit, Purl, Sow" exhibition, especially since it was fairly close to my brother's place. It is closing this week, and I didn't want to miss it. From the exhibition description:

"This exhibition brings together three artists with great technical skill who are also heavily influenced by the natural world. The lush surroundings of Brooklyn Botanic Garden provide the perfect context for these botanically inspired works.

"Stitching gives familiar forms new emphasis and meaning. Some of these works meticulously render plant anatomy, depicting the structure and function of flowers, leaves, and roots. Other pieces take nature into the abstract to express growth, change and evolution." 

The exhibition was breath-taking. We came up to the conservatory where it was housed (and we were happy to get out of the cold, no lush surroundings at the garden today)...

And upon peeking down into the shorter glass structures, saw part of the exhibition from above. (Plus ourselves taking pictures with iPhones.)

The same tiger lily scuplture, from underneath.

The artists' use of texture, both through the yarn chosen and the patterns used, was incredible. This artist in particular mixed yarns very effectively throughout pieces.

The same thing with stitch patterns! The way they were used lent incredible depth and interest.

Other artists used color instead, especially variations between shades and hues.

This was the only flat piece. The t-pins used to mount it were an especially clever touch.

All of the other sculptures were 3-D and used proportion to pull you into the structure. From the front:

And the side. Sorry it is slightly out of focus. As Gale Zucker would say: "Pixels are free!" I should have taken a few more.

I also wish I had included a person for scale. The sculpture was about 4 feet in diameter.

What cannot be conveyed by these pictures, and what was especially surprising, was the motion. The ones in the photo above in particular were hung or mounted in such a way that they could spin, twist, tremble, wave and dance. Just like the living things they were modeled on.