On the 17th of April 2024, JW Anderson opened a showcase of Patrick Carroll’s artworks during Salone del Mobile in Milan.
Patrick Carroll makes artworks by stretching textiles he has knitted onto stretcher bars as though they are paintings. From his large collection of yarn, nearly all scavenged from yarn remainder shops that liquidate the fashion industry’s leftovers, Carroll forges compositions of varied texture, material, colour, and transparency, in primarily wool, linen, silk, cashmere, and mohair. He makes each work by hand on a flatbed domestic knitting machine from the 1970s at his studio in Los Angeles.
Knitted into the works are bits of text. About half the works in this show bear a single word, usually a word that names a concept–music, abnegation, pity, voices, permanence. Of the rest, some quote works of literature, some refer to already extant works of art, and some feature Carroll’s own phrases. Carroll’s shows come together across the making of them, language accreting daily to form a modular chorus. It is only in the realization of a show that its aesthetic argument emerges.
The installation showcases 37 artworks that are available for purchase at the JW Anderson Milan store.
Patrick Carroll, Days, 17th to 21st April, JW Anderson Milan Store
About the artist
Patrick Carroll, born in California, is an artist and writer living in Los Angeles. Carroll creates both wearable garments, as featured in the JW Anderson MSS23 show in Milan in 2022, and more recently hand stretched pieces using wooden frames. Carroll’s most recent exhibition in New York City titled Commonplacing continues to explore knitted textile, a journey that began in 2019, when the artist began creating pieces on a flat-bed knitting machine with no power source. Carefully selected text or singular words are woven into pieces with Carroll’s work being remarked as thoughtfully “probing the poetic and political tensions between language, culture, and visibility” (Lincoln, ArtForum 2023).
