The Catamount statue at the main entrance of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, is in the holiday spirit. The bronze statue is wearing a bright red and green sweater courtesy of the WNC Fiber Folk Group, whose members share an interest in fiber arts including knitting and crocheting. Group members “yarn bombed” the big cat Thursday, Dec. 8, and will remove the sweater Friday, Dec. 16, 2011.
Knitting a sweater for the Catamount grew out of the group’s weekly meetings at the WCU Fine Art Museum. The sweater project not only was fun, but also is part of a contemporary, worldwide artistic movement, said Denise Drury, interim director of the WCU Fine Art Museum and Fiber Folk organizer. Yarn bombing is the practice of wrapping a structure in the public landscape in knitted or crocheted cloth. Unlike graffiti, yarn installations are not permanent and can easily be removed. The practice began in the mid-2000s and has spread around the world.
“As a university, this is where experimentation in the arts begins, and we need to foster that,” said Drury, who alerted University Police prior to the project so the effort wouldn’t be identified as vandalism.
Jessica Breen, a group member and an assistant in the WCU Biology Department, created the five-foot-long sweater over four days on an electric knitting loom. Not only is the project her first experience yarn bombing, but it also is her first experience knitting a sweater. “The Catamount got all my holiday knitting,” Breen said, adding that the statue won’t complain if the sweater is “itchy or doesn’t fit right.”
Other Fiber Folk members who participated in the project were Jen Nickel of the Center for Service Learning, Nicole Parrish of Campus Recreation and Wellness and Elizabeth Snyder of the Office of Planning and Effectiveness. The group sewed the completed sweater onto the statue, and as an added touch, lined the sweater’s collar with battery-powered colored lights.
The Catamount statue is a 2000 gift from longtime WCU benefactor Irwin Belk. It was commissioned by the university and moved to its location at the campus entrance in 2006. Over the years, the Catamount has been victim of numerous improprieties, said Roger Turk, WCU grounds superintendent. “Obviously, this is done in better taste. There was a positive motive behind it,” Turk said.
The WNC Fiber Folk Group formed earlier this year with the intention of creating items to raise awareness about social issues affecting the world community. Members have crafted pieces for the “Asheville Reef,” a satellite of the worldwide “Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef” project, and items depicting food in support of the WCU Poverty Project (those items are on display in the Star Lobby, adjacent to the museum, through December).
For more information about the WNC Fiber Folk Group or the WCU Fine Art Museum, contact Drury at 828/227-2553 or e-mail to (ddrury@wcu.edu).
Tags: Catamount Statue, Cullowhee NC, Visiting Cullowhee NC, Visiting North Carolina, WCU Fine Art Museum, Western Carolina University, WNC Fiber Folk Group
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