Behind the scenes
The poem "Me gusta cuando callas" from Twenty Love Poems and a Desperate Song (1924) by Pablo Neruda talks about an emotional separation, not a physical one, between two lovers, where one is absent, silent and distant. While the other, the man, narrates the poem from the fear and despair caused by this distance that the beloved is giving him. He constantly seeks to close those gaps, because he thinks that if he manages to fill them with words and moments together, it means that their relationship is safe. As I mentioned, I found it very interesting to transfer this poem to knitting, but from my own interpretation and questions that it generated. This is reflected in the concept for the project, which I add below, where I wanted to question the negative connotation that Pablo Neruda gives to the silences and absences that his lover gives him.
"A relationship is a fabric, a fabric that is made up of many strands. Some of him, others of hers and many of both. There are moments where the strands of both come together very tightly, creating a full fabric, where both are sharing one with the other. But there are also moments where he or she is in search of their own space; this generates silences, voids, absences and blank pages that are evident in the fabric. These absences of fabric are not heartbreaking holes in the half of a uniform fabric, it is not a mistake that needs to be sewn to unite. It is a silence that desperately seeks to normalize itself, that needs to be understood and respected within this fabric that composes them both. Through these gaps, love remains "Those blank pages do not detract from the love that exists between two. They are just two people, each one made up of different moments, marked through this fabric. Which come together to create a new one that will never be uniform."
Project Concept
Building on this concept, do some visual investigation. Where from the written words I was looking for images that conveyed those feelings to me in order to reach the Moodboard of the project.
Moodboard
Taking into account the Moodboard, the color palette and the choice of materials with which the fabric was going to be worked was arrived at. From this, a material exploration was carried out, which ended in a Mini Collection of 6 material samples of 15x15 cm. If it is of interest to you, you can find a more in-depth explanation of the construction of each one in my sketchbook.
Mini sample collection of the project
From there a collection of twelve designs was raised.
Collection knitted fabric
Design #12 is the design that I chose to knit and which I then finished with an embroidery in white crochet thread. I chose it because it was the one that achieved the most honest translation of the ideas from the concept to the knitted fabric.
Final design of the piece
I invite you to look at this Sketchbook of the project. Here record the entire process; both conceptual and construction of the fabric from its sample stage to the final piece.