Please don’t confuse crocheting with knitting, for it’s one thing that makes Agata Oleksiak, a well-known crochet artiste from Poland, squirm with displeasure. Currently working on her new art arrangement for the ongoing St+art Delhi Street Art Festival, wherein she’s crocheting kilometres and kilometres of yarn and fabric, in an attempt to bring awareness to the thousands of homeless people in the city, and at the same time, make people aware of the many night shelters that the government has set up for these people.
Once finished, Agata’s work titled You Must Believe That You Have Received will be put up at one of the family night shelters in the Sarai Kale Khan area. The shelter is 40ft long and 8ft high and, therefore, will require 90 km worth of fabric to cover. Fashion designers such as Tarun Tahiliani and Manish Arora are contributing towards the initiative by supplying the fabric. “The project is both huge in scale and meaning. I know it’s a journey that’ll exhaust me, maybe even take me to the edge of quitting and running away, but once I manage to complete it, I will be able to spread my wings with the new energy of having done something worthwhile. I will then fly away to another destination to bring colours and light to those who need it,” she says, adding, “India was on my dream travel map for a really long time. So with the little patience that I had, I was waiting for the right opportunity to come my way. I think the best way to enter a new culture is with my own art, as it’s nothing but an extension of my personality.” Escaping from the aganosing winters of New York City, where she lives now, Agata says she’s happy to have come to Delhi—a land of beautiful colours, that will become even more resplendent with her suitcases full of crocheted madness.
The work is on display till April 20.