In this year of oversized knits, the one who’s surely outsized them all is Matty Bovan. Any visitor sauntering towards the NOW Gallery in London will see his 10 meter (32-feet) high sweater—with separate ‘off-the-shoulder’ sleeves—from a mile away. “It has gargantuan proportions!” he declared. “It’s so big, we knitted it on our arms.”
This multicolored piece of handcrafted nuttery is made from ribbon. Hence the installation’s title, seen from afar: “Ribbons by Matty Bovan.” It’s a sweater almost big enough to house a party—which is more or less exactly what Bovan threw at the private unveiling last night—he DJ-ing alongside London’s nightlife legend Princess Julia.
“It’s a fluid experiment,” said the designer from York—the man who charmed Milan (and its international audience) with the runway show that Dolce & Gabbana facilitated for him in September. “I want people to be able to touch it and play with it, and add to it.”
There’s a bank of ribbon-reels in the corner, which visitors are encouraged to snip from, and use their ingenuity to tie, knot, or weave into the installation. “I learned to knit and crochet from my grandma at the age of 11,” he elucidated. “I’m passionate about the craft and the fun of doing things yourself, and of passing that on. That’s why I’m very happy that people, especially students, can come here for free.” On one of the walls, there’s an extension of Bovan’s non-stop creative flow—a first exhibit of his paintings on canvas, scrawled with the words that spontaneously spool through his mind. “Please No” goes one, followed by “Sparkle Baby Wetter,” “Worst Idea Ever,” and “Great Matty Love.”
In the meanwhile, people who crawl through to sit inside the under-belly of the big knit can give themselves over to watching overlapping video montages of Bovan and a friend in York riding a bucking bronco. “I was sort of inspired by how Derek Jarman and his friends just made films together, without a script; they just did it.” It’s long-form, without a narrative, and deliberately takes longer to look at—should you persevere—than the average few seconds-worth of jittery attention that most of us expend on our social media feeds.
“I’d say it’s aggressively poetic,” he remarked, in his ever-friendly Yorkshire manner that’s a contributing factor in his growing reputation. And like all the best exhibitions, there’s a shop to visit before you exit, a place to pick up limited-edition souvenir Matty-merch: han -printed t-shirts, hoodies, and tote bags, plus a selection of earrings and pins made by his mother Plum.
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