Laura Tringali Holmes: Under the Influence--Exploring the Primordial Heart with Dan Daughters

What is it about collages featuring knitwear that strikes a universal chord? My personal collage work can be a bit of an acquired taste, but then I go post a piece on Tumblr that I made in the style of American-artist-living-in-the-UK knitwearisto Dan Daughters and my phone rings off the hook, metaphorically speaking. Almost twice the number of people who usually like or reblog my work hit the button for the knitwear piece. Baffled? Yeah, a little, but only a little, because I happen to adore knitwear collage myself, especially as executed by Dan Daughters. Intrigued that apparently I'm not alone in my love-of-knitwear? U betcha!

Here's the knitwear piece that I posted on Tumblr. It's called "Double Knits" and has to do with sibling relationships. I made it from vintage knitting pattern paper sent to me by Dan Daughters himself, as part of a collaborative art project. Clearly, when I made this piece, I was channeling Dan, since I had been a fan of his "Knitted" series for quite some time. In my mind, you can't work with this sort of paper and NOT fall under the influence of Dan Daughters.

"Double Knits" / Laura Tringali Holmes / 2013

Now let's enjoy three of my favorite pieces from Dan Daughter's "Knitted" series:

"Ventriloquism" (Knitted #13) / Dan Daughters / 2014

"Confined" (Knitted #6) / Dan Daughters / 2013

"Apprehending"( Knitted #8) / Dan Daughters / 2013

But let's return to that universal chord. Dan has a few series (both collage and photographic), going on at any given time, but when he adds to his "Knitted" collage collection, feedback is always positive and often voluminously so. What are viewers responding to in these collages? Certainly there is the fragmentation and possession of space that one expects from any good collage. There is also a lovely juxtaposition of clarity and ambiguity created through thoughtful segmentation and--in Dan's case, in many pieces--facial reconfiguration. There's a sense of humor in many of Dan's arrangements, but sometimes there is pathos instead. Unfailingly, each image creates a new reality extending beyond the source materials.

"Abbreviation Reconciled" (Knitted #5) / Dan Daughters / 2013

But there's also more, I suspect. Many collages achieve what I've outlined above, but not all affect viewers to the point that they consistently feel compelled to express their approval through the "like" and "love" and "reblog" buttons endemic to the world of social media. So I have developed a theory.

When we see knitwear, we react with our primordial hearts.

And these reactions can be so natural and innate that they escape our notice, unless we fish for the "why." The flight or fight reaction comes immediately to mind as a corollary. We twig to danger, real or imagined, our brains gush cortisol, we outwit/outthink/outrun, and we survive another day. We don't really think about it except, perhaps, to be grateful that we are still alive. The smell of vanilla...to many it suggests safety and love--warm ovens in friendly kitchens and windows rimed with condensation. And then we have knitwear. A hat on a snowy day. A sweater against a chill wind. The memory of a beloved grandparent--not to mention Mr. Rogers--zippered into his or her cardigan. Could this be why Dan Daughter's "Knitted" series garners such a positive response among so many? These are troubled times for the world, after all. Cold. Competitive. Hardly snuggly. And this is on the outside. On the inside we must also cope with life's never-ending whirligig. We could all of us use a cardigan draped over our shoulders from time to time. And when the cardigan--or whatever knitwear configuration we are addressing--is manipulated through collage to move us a little closer to a realization of the emotional complexity of our primordial hearts...

Well, I hereby propose the concept of knitwear as collective archetype.

And on that note, a couple more of Dan's pieces to enjoy: