The Knits

“The Knits” straddles a liminal filmic space between performance-for-video and contemporary fairy tale. A mother lovingly and arduously knits a sweater. Simultaneously this same sweater unravels as her daughter makes her way across Canada by foot. Along the way, the work tugs at the interwoven loops of art versus craft, gendered materiality, and the nostalgic artifacts of technologies. In knitting, one literally gives one’s time—chronicled in interwoven loops of yarn—to keep someone warm. Hand-knitted sweaters bring us closer to our mothers and grandmothers as we physically carry a document of their love and labour next to our skin, almost like a protective second skin. This project is a loving homage to Barbara Birke (the artist’s mother) and her chronic affliction of “the Knits”. The artist wishes to acknowledge the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council Media Artists Creation Grant.