This is one yarn with a rubber ending.
Park Slope artist Agata Olek is so hooked on crochet that she created an entire installation by looping together 13,000 white balloons with her bare hands — elevating the old-school textile art to new heights.
Her “Kiss Me, I Crochet” exhibit is turning heads at Long Island University’s Downtown Campus where it looks like a cascade of giant condoms rising heavenward to form a pair of colossal poodles.
It’s not everlasting, though, said Olek, because the balloons are deflating with each passing moment — her take on the different stages of decay.
“It looks wonderful in the beginning, but eventually it becomes smaller and uglier, and collects dust — just like life, itself,” said the Polish-born artist who has exhibited her cerebral crocheted pieces in Manhattan, and around the world.
They are two-fold in their perception.
“I create audience-friendly art that can be understood by anyone, and then there’s a second level for the art-educated because the materials I use are ephemeral,” she explained.
To those viewing her work, art novices or not, the message is clear: “Life and art are inseparable.”
“Kiss Me, I Crochet” in the Humanities Building at Long Island University [DeKalb Avenue between Ashland Place and Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown, (718) 488-1198] through Dec. 9.
