FLM: Tell us a bit about how you started crocheting. Who taught you? When did you learn? Did you immediately recognize your talent for crocheting?
OLEK: When I started nobody could spell the word crochet, no one was doing it, people still confuse crocheting with knitting. Knitting is for pussies. Albert Einstein said ”The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone, is likely to find himself in places no one else has been.”
A skein of yarn struck me in the head like magic dust from an undiscovered planet. I looked up at the stars and picked up a crochet hook. It was about making art out of whatever landed closest to me. I’m a sculptor, that job has no limitations. It’s about stretching the canvas to fit the vision.
I’m a theater monkey, tap dancer, burlesque queen, I tell stories. I want my visual language to transcend the obvious and the expected, rather it should seduce the viewers and lure them into an alternative reality where they can imagine and conjure their own fables with the help of my signature elements.
It’s a never-ending crocheted journey, embellished with emotions, memories, experiences, thoughts and insights. Most of all it’s about recording the ephemeral moments of street- and performance art.
OLEK
Born Agata Oleksiak, in 1978, in industrial Poland, OLEK's art allowed her to leave her gritty, narrow-minded hometown of Silesia. Through colors and conceptual exploration OLEK's art examines sexuality, feminist ideas and the evolution of communication, all with meticulous detail and total candor. OLEK consistently pushes the boundaries of fashion, art, crafts and public art, fluidly combining the sculptural and the fanciful. With the old fashioned technique of crocheting, she has taken the ephemeral medium of yarn to express everyday occurrences and inspirations, thus creating a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our bodies and our psychological processes. Her bursts of bright colors often mask political and cultural critiques woven into the fibers of installations, mirroring her respect for artists and writers. She highlights that which already exists in real time, in our environment. As an active supporter of women's rights, sexual equality and freedom of expression, OLEK has used the broad appeal of her work to display her solidarity with those stifled by oppressive laws worldwide. Through her body of work, OLEK has always sought to bring color and life, energy and surprise to the living space. OLEK's work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and public spaces worldwide, from Art Basel and Wynwood Walls in Miami, to the Brooklyn Museum in New York and The Smithsonian in Washington DC. She was a featured artist in the independent collective exhibition "Waterways" during the 49th Venice Biennale as well as in "Two Continents Beyond" at the 9th International Istanbul Biennale. OLEK currently lives and works in Brooklyn.