Franziska Nast

Installation aus großformatigen Häkelobjekten, Offsetdruck auf Fahnenstoff /  installation of large size crochet objects, offset printing on flag fabric,
3 × 7 m

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FN
… I also keep coming back to the texts of the Beat Generation, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg with their language experiments. I also like the other Marcel, Marcel Broodthaers, and there are works by Sophie Calle that appeal to me, as well as those by Tracey Emin.
I am thrilled by her autobiographical writings, her books and drawings. I can somehow find myself in this kind of drawings, the fleeting nature, the diary-like notes. I am basically a fan of textile work and have been studying the work of Rosemarie Trockel quite a lot, her knitted pictures, and of course Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

JM
How did your crochet work come about and what does it mean to you?

FN
I learned to crochet from my grandma and regarding her it is also an important moment of remembrance for me. Crochet, of course, has classic female connotations – but I find the aspect of irony not unimportant. My work »Häkeln gegen Instasucht« (Crochet against Insta addiction) is not just a crochet piece, it intertwines with text, it pours out of a banner, thus creating clashes that break the seemingly feminine … »knitted a beautiful scarf«. Basically, crochet is a meditative side activity. Sometimes there is simply no time for more than a few rows. I often have got wool with me in different places or find elements somewhere that I include. So I incorporate situations into the crochet. In this way I produce shapeless parts that later I put together piece by piece to create a large whole. At first seemingly without function, then an important component. There it is again, the process of transformation.
It’s different with the tops that I’ve been making for ages now under the label »Fack Fushion«. They are actually meant to be worn, but as textiles they still oscillate between artwork, edition and fashion production.

JM
People can purchase your fashion at an affordable price. Did you conceive it that way from the outset?

FN
It is important to me that the movement continues there, too, just as a tattoo on a body literally walks out into the world; every person should be able to have a work of art. That is important to me.
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