After just putting up a new piece in Fishtown last week, Ishknits (aka Jessie Hemmons) installed her largest yarnbomb yet outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Perelman building this past weekend, and, of course, it’s fucking awesome. I emailed (read: Facebook messaged) her right away to congratulate her and to find out more about the installation, and some other things…

Streets Dept: How’d you end up yarnbombing the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Perelman building? How long will it be up?

Jessie Hemmons: The curator of Craft Spoken Here, Elisabeth Agro, became familiar with my work from the Rocky statue yarnbomb in 2011 and that is how the connection was made for this installation. I believe she was invested in fostering a connection between makers of all levels through the “unspoken” language of craft, and wanted to create a relationship between crafters and fine artists. In order to accomplish this I believe she wanted to take some risks, which involved yarnbombing the exterior of the building, as well as incorporating a CraftLab as part of the exhibition, where individuals of all levels can come and practice a variety of crafts during museum hours.

Because of the nature of weathering with yarnbombing, the installation will be up until early June.

For more photos and the full interview, CLICK—>

SD: How long have you been working on this piece? How much yarn is this exactly?

JH: I was given just shy of 3 weeks to complete the piece, and because of the short time frame, all of the work was completed by me. This installation took about 350 skeins (balls) of yarn.

SD: What would you love most to yarnbomb in Philly that you already haven’t?

JH: I would love to cover an abandoned home in Philadelphia, as a community based project, incorporating neighbors and volunteers into the design and fabrication the piece. I have wanted to do this for years, and with the recent catastrophe in Kensington, I believe the project would be more pertinent than ever. Unfortunately, since I have my name associated with my work, I need to approach this project as a commissioned work, which always makes things more difficult. So we’ll see!

SD: You seem to be constantly working on new projects, so what’s next for Ishknits?

JH: What is next is trying to bring my installations to other cities in the US. There will be an installation in D.C. in late summer/early fall for a show at the Corcoran School of Art and Design. Additionally, since my work has evolved publicly, from my first bike rack yarnbomb to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I would like to continue to grow technically and conceptually through street installations, allowing this process to remain visible and transparent each step of the way.