KNITTED TIME

The First 500 Days of Life

These two knitworks illustrate the awake/asleep rhythm during the first 500 days in the lives of my two children. Each knitwork pertains to one child. Awake times are in yellow, sleep times in blue. One stitch represents ten minutes, one row represents one day.

Here, a rhythm of life that usually just happens without leaving any palpable traces is given a concrete form; intangible time is transformed into a tangible surface. This visualisation of time produces a distinct pattern for each child (just as it would produce a very individual pattern for each of us).

This project has been a very long-lasting one: I started to collect the data over eighteen years ago. I spent two 500-day periods manually recording the data, then let the project rest for many years. Only now that my children are adults, have I finally completed it.

(Knitted mohair wool, 2 works each ca. 87 x 43 cm, frames 100 x 50 cm, data collection 2001–2003 and 2003–2004, realisation of the works 2020)