Imagine coming home and your entire living room has been crocheted by your new roommate - the pots, the pans, the sofa... I mean everything. Imagine walking down the street and seeing a crochet car or a person crocheted head to toe. Even better the charging bull on Wall Street or all the windows of an NYC building, or a lone bike out front - everything crocheted. This is not your grandmother’s crocheting - this is found objects, friends and the unknown... this is something different than what we know of“crochet” - it’s Olek, an exotic girl bythe name of Agata Oleksiak, born in Poland and a graduate of Mickiewicz University of Poland. While in NYC while in artist/residency, Olek re- discovered her crochet ability, creating a crochet world. There is something absolutely inspiring and intriguing when watching Olek work... she is completely outside of the box and beats to her own drum. Olek’s resumé well exceeds your grandmother’s sweaters and knit caps, and would no doubt make you and her confused and intrigued.
“A loop after a loop, hour after hour,my madness becomes crochet. Life and art are inseparable. The movies
I watch while crocheting influencemy work, and my work dictates thefilms I select. I crochet everythingthat enters my space. Sometimes it’s a text message, a medical report, or found objects. There is the unraveling, the ephemeral part of my work that never lets me forget about the limited life of the art object and art concept. What do I intend to reveal? You have to pull the end of the yarn and unravel the story behind the crochet. My work changes from place to place. I studied the science of culture. With a miner’s work ethic, I long to delve deeper and deeper into
my investigations. My art was a development that took me away from industrial, close-minded Silesia, Poland. It has always sought to bring color and life, energy, and surprise to the living space. My goal is to produce new work and share it with the public. I intend to take advantage of living in NYC with various neighborhoods and, with my actions, create a feedback to the economic and social reality in our community.”
Make sure to check out more of Olek’s work at http://agataolek. com/home.html