Crochet Artist Covers an Entire Finnish House With Pink Yarn

In Kerava, Finland, almost 20 miles outside Helsinki, artist OLEK strung together an impressive statement. As part of an installation on refugee displacement, the Polish native completely crocheted over an art gallery that is based in a house built in the 1910s—covering everything from the chimney down to the ground with pink, patterned fabric.

OLEK, whose work often focuses on feminism and sexuality, created the house-slipcover as part of an installation for the Kerava Art Museum in Finland. Earlier this summer, she worked with refugee women from Syria and Ukraine in Avesta, Sweden in order to create her first crochet house. Then, the artist destroyed a yarn-bombed interior room with an explosion to highlight the plight of those who have lost their homes in war.

The Kerava installation is part two of the project, meant to provide a happier ending to the darker initial project. Over the course of three weeks, volunteers, including immigrants and women from a reception center for asylum seekers, helped OLEK and her team make enough pink, crocheted fabric to cover the entire building. In total, they crafted more than 3200 square feet of crocheted pattern.

She wanted to create the installation “as a symbol of a brighter future for all people, especially the ones who have been displaced against their own wills,” OLEK tells mental_floss in an email. “Women have the ability to recreate themselves. No matter how low life might bring us, we can get back on our feet and start anew.”

You can watch the intense crafting process in the video below:

Kerava Art Museum: Our Pink House by Olek from Sinkka on Vimeo.

For even more photos, check out #ourpinkhouse on Instagram.

[h/t Colossal]

All images courtesy OLEK

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