Tension

Written By Anne Duncan
Photograph of knit ribbon on wooden spool, with greenery in the background.
Photograph of artist's hands knitting the ribbon, with a portion showing the word "THE" on the needles.

A prose poem about chronic pain, knit in one continuous line of text. The text is knit using stranded color work. The knit object is approximately 8,000 stitches across and 8 rows high, measuring at 100 feet across and 1 inch high. The project is one of temporal duration, taking 300 hours over two years to complete.The knit stockinette ribbon naturally curls in on itself, becoming its own sort of cord with which one could knit or crochet any number of other shapes. To read the text, the reader must hold the ribbon taut — against its instinct to curl. Reading thus requires constant contact with the reader’s hands.

Materials: white cotton yarn, black cotton/wool blend yarn.

Anne Duncan
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Poem Reflected in a Pool of Water, As Seen After the Fall