Jan C Wilson

The gift and the proper: frothing the synaptic bath

16 November - 4 December

The act of knitting in public is often seen as a contentious act resulting in vitriolic protests and publicity beyond that which one would expect from what seems such a harmless act. The Honorable Judith Tizard’s act of knitting in parliament had Winston Peters complaining that she was “arrogant and disrespectful” and that the act was typical of her “contempt and arrogance.” Similarly Richard Prebble allowed that “knitting needles were a device” and should be banned from Chambers and Bill English equated the act to “text messaging.” Yet while in that instance knitting was seen as something rebellious, generally when a woman is told to “stay at home with her knitting” that charge sarcastically places her in a No Mans Land of domesticity. So apparently a knitter can be a subversive or she can relegate herself to a position beyond individuality and only be useful in terms of the needs of others, effectively liquidating her selfhood.

Wilson explores these problematic and opposing feelings by provocatively fetishising infantilism through an over abundance of knitted booties. Booties are a proper gift and often the first received by the new Mother-to –be. In this way, Wilson also opens the dialogue surrounding the experiences of women artists who take time out from their artistic careers to venture into Motherhood. The impact that the parasitical needs child rearing has, when the artist experiences it, is symbolized by the placement of the booties in the gallery context. She is refusing to knit in private.