2nd Ghetto Biennale 2011

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ARCHIVED WORK OF PARTICIPATING ARTISTS & SCHOLARS

Erin Durban & Shannon Randall

When we applied to the 2nd Ghetto Biennale, we proposed to use mobile fiber art to "knit the city" of Port‐au‐Prince in an all ages, transnational collaboration with Haitian artists and other participants in the Ghetto Biennale. We held three crochet workshops; each was well attended by a wide range of Ghetto Biennale participants. Although we had planned to create and install yarn bombs with the workshop participants we found that we had not allowed enough time for that goal to materialize. However, the workshops were successful and fun. All the participants (including Erin and Shannon) were able to work together and learn from each other.

We also promised to yarn bomb the site where the Christopher Columbus statue used to stand. We wanted our installation piece to connect the geopolitics of Haiti with the politics of the Mexico/U.S. border. We were unable to access that site. We decided to create a cape for Neg Mawon, to reference his superhero status. We connected Haiti and the Mexico/U.S. border through the global commodity chain. We made t-shirt yarn from used t-shirts. We crocheted and sewed the t-shirts together to create the cape.