Is This Liberty?

30ft Scarf
Yarn
Punch Cards
Knitting Machine

Is This Liberty?  is a machine-knitted 30ft scarf with the language of the 14th Amendment. Appropriately laborious, the traditionally feminine act of knitting is used here as an act of resistance against relentless gender inequalities in the U.S. Dropped stitches and broken threads threaten to easily unravel the time and energy towards progress in the same ways that the Supreme Court’s recent rulings have reversed societal advancements towards a more equal and just world. The knitted text is then wrapped around wom(x)n as a metaphor for restriction of freedom and the right of choice over our bodies and our futures.

14th Amendment

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Posters include punched circles and grids which are derived from the machine punch card vernacular.

First the punch cards which program needle selection in the machine were punched by hand, removing parts of the card to render type. The  cards, now porous, embody the erasure of liberties; the empty spaces within the type reflect the empty promises of the constitution to uphold equal rights and liberties for all citizens. The punch cards were then fed into the machine and knit, row by row over the course of 48 hours.  

︎︎︎ Process

RISD
Spring 2024
Advised by Lucinda Hitchcock & Bethany Johns