Yarn Bombing: Claiming Rhetorical
Citizenship in Public Space
Maureen Daly Goggin
Arizona State University, USA
Rhetoric in Society 4
Copenhagen
January 16, 2013
Yarn bombing is also known as:
yarn storming
yarn graffiti
Iceland
New Zealand
urban crochet and knitting
guerilla crochet and knitting
street or outsider yarn art
Canada
Davis Baird “Thing Knowledge”
“where the things we make bear knowledge of the
world, on par with the words we speak”
Davis Baird, “Thing Knowledge—Function and Truth,” Techné 6.2 (Winter 2002): 13.
A1one (a.k.a. Tanha) Tehran, Iran
“A drawing on the street
is similar to a letter. It
proves that there is a
writer.”
A1one 2011 (a.k.a Tanha), Tehran
Deadly Knitshade on Yarn Storming
Change and making the world a better
place can be done with a grin instead of a
grimace, a whisper instead of a bellow.
What we do can alter the way people
look at their world. How it alters it is up
to them. That’s really our point.
Deadly Knitshade, Knit the City: A Whodunnkit Set in London
(Chichester: Summersdale, 2011) 124.
Dennis Stevens on DIY Movement
Rather than bringing revolution
to the front door and kicking it
open, as their parents may have
hoped to do, these independent
[DIY] makers are using the
disarming and unassuming
aesthetic of DIY craft’s remixed
domestic creativity to make
subversive statements about the
world in which they live.
Dennis Stevens, “DIY: Revolution 3.0—Beta,”
Craft Council (September 16, 2009).
Iraqi War Protest in Denmark
by Marianne Jorgensen
Nikolaj Contemporary
Art Center
Copenhagen
Pink M.24 Chaffee Tank April 2006
Political Decision
Protest
Anti-Nuclear Yarn
Bombing in Germany
by Strick and Liesel
“No thanks” is the message
2011
Yarn Bombing Political Decision Protest
Opposition to tramway
expansion in
Edinburgh
Unknown Crochet
artist
September 2012
Yarn Bombing Political Economic Protest
Germany
by Strick & Liesel
Message “Redundant” or
“Fired”
on “throw-up” tag
2011
Yarn Bombing Political Economic Protest
By Knit Riot
Collective
Los Feliz, CA June 2012
“HOMEsweetHOME” protest
KnitRiot Economic Protest Yarnboming
Highland Park School
June 2011
PATH Homeless Center, East Hollywood
December 2011
Québec Student Strike and Yarnbombing
Above left Students
hold hand knitted
protest signs March 22, 2012
Above right Red knitted Protest quilt
(stitched 1/2012-8/2012)
Hung September 2012
“The struggle is only starting”
Protest for Environmental Sustainability
Fracking near Blackpool, England Nov. 2012
Yarn bombing at St. Annes Square,
Blackpool , November 28, 2012
“Against Water F.O.W.L.E.R.S. Awareness
Campaign”
Knitting Nannas Against Gas
Australia
A Protest (above) & Getting
ready for a protest (right)
Protest for Sustainability
Protest against Logging in Alberta, Canada
Protest against Tire Burning
July 3, 2012
Saifi Village, Beirut, Lebanon
Bokja Designers and Berirut Citizens
“We are tyred”
Velbert, Germany
Graz, Austria
Alberta, Canada
Today’s activists must … recognize that their participation
in public life will make a critical difference in their world.
By acting proactively and with tactical and strategic
wisdom, social change activists can bring a degree of social
and economic justice . . . that has for too long been
deferred.
Yellow Springs, OH
Brooklyn, NY
“Play Me I’m Yours”
Shaw, Randy. The Activist’s Handbook rev. 2nd ed. 1996. Berkeley and Los Angeles,
University of California Press, 2001. 279.
Iasi, Romania
Thank you!