69 Meters Comes to Life

Today was the installation of the 69 Meters project, coordinated by Magda, the artist behind Knitta Please. Knitters from all over the world volunteered to knit covers for the 69 parking meters on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights and tonight some of us, together with other volunteers, met up with Magda to put the covers in place.

This is the first public art project I've participated in, and I have to say, I was really excited, particularly to see what the others had knit. It felt as though I was part of a little community!
Magda, the artist behind Knitta Please, was so warm and groovy and appreciative of our efforts. She and the other organizers were really, um, organized. They'd arranged it so that if you knit a piece and came to the installation, you would have the opportunity to install your piece. So I did!

Fixing the covers to the meters was more difficult than I could have thought. We used zip ties as fasteners and had to pull the covers super tight. Mine was a little wide, so there was a bit slack that I had to take up, and the ties were so small and hard that with all of the tugging, my fingers soon became sore. As I was sitting on the sidewalk trying to negotiate my cover in to place, I was spotted by two different friends of mine. Sometimes New York feels like a really small place.

Here we see Brent, next to the a cover I put up (but did not make).

It was so cold and windy today that by the time I'd finished, my fingers were aching and I really wanted to scoot, but I did check out some of the other covers before heading home.

I'll be back again to see the full installation, in all of it's glory. Overall, this was a really fun and rewarding project.