Growing… Gone

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Artist: Ayelet Lindenstrauss Larsen

Title: Growing… Gone

Attribution: Growing... Gone, 2013, Ayelet Lindenstrauss Larsen

Year: 2013

Materials: Cotton thread, wood, paint, stain.

Dimensions: 6" h by 9.5" w by 6.25" d

Image Statement: This piece is part of my hyperbolic series which consists of crocheted hyperbolic surfaces, each  housed in a miniature room with a chair for the viewer.  Hyperbolic surfaces can be made using crochet by keeping increasing stitches at a fixed rate.  This leads to a lot of ruffles.  Every consecutive row increases the ruffling and can qualitatively change the feel of the whole piece---almost as if the surface were alive.  This appealed to me because I always look for ways to mix predictability with unpredictability---and what could be more predictable than crocheting long rows in a single stitch with a single thread?  It also makes the process addictive: soothing and exciting simultaneously. The basic parameters---what thread you use, what rate of increase of stitches, whether you work in rows or in the round---affect the look of the surfaces dramatically, and so different hyperbolic pieces have had very different meanings for me.  This one is about loss.   The evolving nature of the white surface as it was being worked  is analogous to the development of a relationship between two living people.  Both go on for a period of time, undergoing many changes, but then at some point the work is done and the thread is cut, or the people are separated and all you have left is the chance to contemplate the relationship as it was.