Ivano Vitali does something that amazes me. He takes newspaper, recycles it into “yarn” and then uses knit and crochet techniques to turn it into wearable garments. Wow!
More About Crochet Artist Ivano Vitali
Ivano Vitali is an Italian artist whose work has primarily been in sculpture but he also does other art including performance art. He is also an ecologist so it makes sense that he’d be interested in eco-friendly artwork and in fact his website specifies that he does “zero impact global art”. This refers to the fact that he doesn’t use any glues or dyes or anything like that in creating his recycled art pieces. Right now his primarily art form is to recycle newspaper into art, particularly wearable art. He has had numerous exhibits over the years with exhibits almost every year consistently since 1994.
More About Vitali’s Knit and Crochet Art
Vitali has worked with many different types of recycled materials including plastic bags, magazines and cardboard, work that he started doing in the late 1970’s. However, beginning in 1996 he began focusing almost entirely on recycled newspaper art, creating various sculptures including ones large enough to walk through. In 2002 he decided to learn to both knit and crochet from his mother and this vastly changed his artwork. This is also when he switched to zero environmental impact art.
PSFK explains a little bit about Vitali’s recycled newspaper art process:
“He tears the material into strips, painstakingly sorting it into different colors so he can create pieces in the hue he desires without having to use dyes. He then twists the paper into balls of yarn, and uses large custom-made needles and hooks made from wood to knit and crochet the material into upcycled and innovative fashion.”
He actually makes his own large crochet hooks and knitting needles to complete his work (which you can see from the image of him knitting above are truly, truly large!). He also frequently wears his own knit and crochet newspaper garments to his fashion shows and art openings. He doesn’t dye the paper so you can read the headlines when you get up close to the works of art.
Knit and Crochet Art Examples
2004 Newspaper Doily
2011 Marlene Knit and Crochet Wedding Dress
2004 Magdalene Crochet Shawl
2005 Wedding Dress and Bouquet, Knit and Crochet
2005 Megan Red Newspaper Jacket
Other Similar Crochet Artists
This artist’s work reminds me of the work of:
Viviana Santamarina, who does knit and crochet sculpture with recycled newspaper
Irina Shabayeva made this newspaper dress for Project Runway. Not crocheted but has a nice knit inspiration.
What are your thoughts on recycling newspaper into crochet items?
A friend just sent me the link to your post, Kathryn – what an amazing artist! I would love to see Ivano’s work in person and hope it will be exhibited in the States again at some point.