“Knitting Nation, founded in 2005, is the project of fashion designer and textile artist Liz Collins, who deploys knitting machines, site-specific installation, performance and a small army of collaborators to manufacture comments on the interaction of humans and machines. On the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Collins and her workers reconstructed the Gay Pride flag designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker. The original rainbow flag, intended to represent the diversity of the gay community, featured eight colours representing ideals such as healing, nature, spirit and life. Among the original colours were hot pink and turquoise, representing sex and art. As the rainbow flag evolved into a marketing opportunity, sex and art were somehow deleted from the rainbow. Knitting Nation Phase 4: Pride restores these ideals to queer consciousness, theatricalizing their disappearance from community ideals and proclaiming the necessity of their presence.” (from Art & Queer Culture. p. 245)
Image: Liz Collins Knitting Nation Phase 4: Pride, 2008 Action and site-specific installation
Art and queer culture Lord, Catherine, 1949- London : Phaidon, 2013. 412 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. English HOLLIS number: 990136652890203941
