Artist Bea Camacho Will Knit Herself into a Yarn Cocoon at the ICA

If there was ever a perfect time to GIF something… / From Enclose by Bea Camacho, via ICA

If you’re the type who likes to see creative, wild, and weird things in person before everyone else, then mark your calendars for November 13 or 15, when artist Bea Camacho will literally knit herself into a yarn cocoon at the ICA. Talk about a “yarn bombing”!

Technically Camacho will crochet her chrysalis—not knit—but technical terms aside, the performance is a response to “Fiber Sculpture: 1960-Present,” the current exhibit at the ICA dedicated to the malleable material. The live performance will be similar to previous ones Camacho has done, such as Enclose (above), which took 11 hours to complete.

Sound quirky? Well, yeah.

After all, what do you say when you’re walking through a museum and see a woman sitting there on the floor crocheting herself a sleeping bag?

True, this performance seems a little off-the-wall upon first glance. However, as Camacho explains about her similar previous projects, the work “deals with ideas of isolation, security, shelter, and of shaping one’s own environment.” In other words, stare all you want, since she too is working to separate herself from you all the while. In another video work, Camacho crocheted herself into yarn that was the same color as her surroundings. In this case, Efface was not just about wrapping herself up, but also about disappearing into her surroundings.

Camacho’s work is about blurring the lines between what fiber can be: art, clothing, architecture. The formation of a chrysalis echoes the ICA exhibit’s exploration of the material as an organic medium, pliable to the artist’s will—and to the audience’s interpretation.

Free with admission, Thursday, November 13, 10 a.m.-8 p.m., and Saturday, November 15, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave., Boston, icaboston.org.