The New Yorker
Goings on About Town - Art
February 12, 2007
MUSEUM OF ARTS & DESIGN
40 W. 53rd St. (212-956-3535)—The diverse works in “Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting” reject notions of sentimental handiwork or coy décor, turning dainty and delicate filigree techniques to more rough-and-tumble mediums, to political discourse, or to decidedly nontraditional subjects. Cal Lane takes found car parts—doors, hoods, fenders—then perforates them with an oxyacetylene torch to make lacy, flowery patterns; Carson Fox’s knotted-wire panel evokes the Victorian hair jewelry made by grieving women, but greatly enlarged. Dave Cole’s 2005 “Knitting Machine” project also toys with scale, and to exhilarating effect: a video documents how he used two John Deere excavators, a pair of pointed metal telephone poles, lengths of colored felt, and a cherry picker to knit a hugely coarse U.S. flag. At the other end of the spectrum, Althea Merback’s minuscule sweaters and gloves—she makes her knitting needles from superfine medical wire—are a marvel of obsessive precision. Through June 17. (Open daily, 10 to 6; and Thursday evenings until 8.)