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In Indonesia, Knitting Gets Political

The Establishment
The Establishment
Published in
5 min readMar 20, 2016

By Theodora Sutcliffe

Fitriani Dalay is challenging artistic censorship, one stitch at a time.

PPublic art like graffiti has long been used as a tool for political commentary and change. In the town of Makassar, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, that politically charged art is of a less typical variety: knitting and yarn-bombing.

The act of yarn-bombing — which involves wrapping structures in knits, essentially replacing graffiti paint with crochet — was first popularized by Austin-based artist Madga Sayeg, and made waves in Jakarta, Indonesia a few years ago, when it was initially used as a way to celebrate the country’s diversity. In Makassar, though, the act is being utilized by artist Fitriani Dalay for other ends: to challenge consumerism, censorship, and elitism in the political and art worlds, while empowering women.

Fitriani’s anti-establishment work has quickly gained attention; last year, her arts cooperative…

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The Establishment
The Establishment

Published in The Establishment

The archives of culture + politics site, The Establishment. Media funded and founded by women — Nikki Gloudeman, Kelley Calkins and Katie Tandy with Ijeoma Oluo, Ruchika Tulshyan and Jessica Sutherland. The conversation is much more interesting when everyone has a voice.

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The Establishment

Written by The Establishment

The conversation is much more interesting when everyone has a voice. Media funded & run by women; new content daily.