SPECIAL EVENT

Making Nothing out of Something at All with Kelly Limerick

Join Kelly Limerick for an 'Unmaking' workshop, and give yourself the permission to slow down and focus on the Now with finger knitting.

Have you ever taken the time out for yourself to be anti-productive? Calm fidgety fingers and the anxious mind through therapeutic motions, finally experiencing the catharsis of releasing your emotions when you undo your creation.

Taking inspiration from Tenderhands by Ivetta Sunyoung Kang and Diary of 2020 by Eun Vivian Lee that are featured in Hope from Chaos: Pandemic Reflections exhibition, Kelly aims to extend the notion of healing and create a moment and space for reflection.

This masterclass is presented as part of Hope from Chaos: Pandemic Reflections exhibition at ArtScience Museum and is conducted in conjunction with Kelly Limerick’s first solo exhibition, Unbecoming, at Cuturi Gallery from 23 Apr - 8 May. The artist takes on the role of both creator and destroyer of the works in the exhibition, as she burns and destroys the sculptures that had been crocheted to completion. In doing so, the artist experiences notions of impermanence, liberation and value. For more information regarding the show, please visit Cuturi Gallery’s website.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kelly Limerick (b. 1991) is a Singaporean self-taught textile artist known for her crochet and knit works. Often creating without a sketch or fixed design, she has stretched this traditional craft beyond predictable patterns and challenges the stigma of crochet being a ‘granny craft’.

Kelly's current line of inquiry concerns itself with the status of crochet as a ‘craft’, and explores destruction and deconstruction of a medium that is additive in nature. While considering the potential of crochet in both delicate lacework as well as its ability to be translated through different mediums in large installations, her work aims to reframe this craft in contemporary times and question the relevance of slow art in a fast-paced society.

Today, her work ranges from soft sculptures, textile hangings and mix media installations. She has been an Artist-in-Residence in the Facebook APAC HQ, exhibited with Esplanade Singapore, and worked with brands like National Heritage Board Singapore, Disney, and most recently Gucci.

Kelly works with sustainable nylon yarn provided by Shaw Contract Asia for this workshop as well as her artworks presented at her exhibition.

All images are film stills from Kelly’s first performative artwork, Brother (2021).
Credit: Director/‘A’ Camera Operator: Eugene Lim | ‘B’ Camera Operator: Sunder Nagayah | Gaffer: Jazlyn Song | Sound Recordist: Sherelle Lim | Editor/Colourist: Eugene Lim | Artist: Kelly Limerick

About the Exhibition

Hope from Chaos marks the second anniversary of the arrival of the COVID-19 virus into Singapore. Discover the science of infectious diseases and reflect on life during a global pandemic.

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Gallery

In this 2-hour masterclass led by Kelly Limerick, calm fidgety fingers and the anxious mind through therapeutic motions, finally experiencing the catharsis of releasing your emotions when you undo your creation.
Kelly Limerick (b. 1991) is a Singaporean self-taught textile artist known for her crochet and knit works. Often creating without a sketch or fixed design, she has stretched this traditional craft beyond predictable patterns and challenges the stigma of crochet being a ‘granny craft’.
Brother
2021
Knitted nylon yarn, acrylic paint, video
450 x 50 cm, 8'33"

The term ‘brother’ evokes a sense of both closeness and disassociation. Painting the word over freshly-knitted yarn, this gesture impresses a sense of the ‘brothers’ tainting the fabric of our society – one in which they are objectified as ‘Others’, and even more so during the health crisis. As the work is unravelled and then re-knitted in a different dimension, the word is rendered illegible, and its identity erased. Yet the paint marks remain woven into the very fabric of our society, reflecting the dissociation between the local community and the migrant worker ‘brothers’. The process of knitting a plain piece devoid of patterns speaks to the menial and monotonous nature of labour. Through the repetitive action of constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing, the transient character of Brother alludes to the state of liminality that migrant workers experience especially during the lockdown.

Commissioned artwork for the exhibition, Of Limits (2021) at Stamford Arts Centre (Singapore).

Watch Brother here