Lisa Urban
[artist]
The Enchantknit Forest
Window Installation
WC Mercantile, Navasota TX
October 2015
The Enchant-knit Forest is a manifestation of several ideas. The first - and most important - is my paintings. Within my paintings I create surrealistic worlds inhabited by knitted forms. Over time these paintings have begun to evolve and include more detailed forms, specially knitted trees. These trees are straight out of a fairy tale ? long, reaching branches and masses of spherical leaves.
For the past couple of years I have been experimenting more and more with bringing the knitted forms from my paintings into the actual gallery. What started as an idea to just knit giant random blobs became even more when I started painting trees. Suddenly I found myself wanting to be immersed in these jungles and began creating giant, all white trees.
This window display acts as a way for me to finally bridge the gap between my paintings and the three dimensional space. I have been experimenting with materials the past six months, ranging from paper mache to chicken wire, but finally settled on an inside armature surrounded by white fabric. All the fabric bits are different and the areas they overlap show sewn, sloppy stitches. I believe this adds to the illusion of these trees not truly belonging in our world.
Take your time to examine this world. Explore it. Where is it? Where will it lead? How far will you go? So many questions and no real answers.