Joana Vasconcelos

Joana Vasconcelos (born 1971) is a Portugese textile artist. She is not afraid of entering taboo areas with her art, and often creates pieces that are metaphors to present day issues. For example her most famous piece 'A Noiva' (The Bride) is a chandelier where the regular pendants are replaced by around 25,000 tampons. Vasconcelos did this to address the problem of society still being captive to patriarchy.

A Noiva, 2001

Vasconcelos' use of art as a political statement makes her relevant to my project, as does the use of knitting in her work. Her more recent works include large-scale, colourful, undulating sculptures constructed with colourful hanging cloth.

Joujoux, 2007

Other knitting work that Vasconcelos has done involves placing knitwork over objects and statues.

Happy family, 2006

Vasconcelos' uuse of knitting provides interesting design ideas for my own work.