the knitted body.

An old student of mine recently brought his friend, a male knitter and artist, Ben Cuevas, to my attention. His work deals a lot with the body, the way we approach our bodies in regards to medicine and medicinals, and the mind body connection.

In the statement for his recent exhibit he says:

Traditional western medicine is an institution often focused on the relief of symptoms, wherein pharmaceuticals promise that the solutions to all of our problems come in the form of a pill. In pursuit of this promise, pharmaceutical marketing practices have made a nearly Orwellian dystopia of our postmodern world, in which our health is dictated by the omnipresent din of the media landscape. By telling us that happiness lies in a pill, by offering a cure for every ailment in life, medicine ignores the metaphysical condition of embodiment (i.e., the condition of having a body, mind, and spirit). Throughout this exhibition, I’ve sought to integrate elements from both the metaphysical and the medicinal, in order to highlight (and maybe even heal) some of the disparities that exist between them.

This work illustrates the organs that represent the chakra system.

Including the third eye. A space and center that I tale about a lot in my yoga teaching and meditation.

His incredible technique is evident in the skeleton work he did, his thoughtfulness as an artist is evident in his intelligent statement... therefore I cannot wait to see what he does next.

And he obviously has a great sense of humor, the images above are from a performance piece where he knit himself a jockstrap while sitting in a locker room!

See more of Ben's work here.