The Mysterious Content of Softness

Husband-and-husband artistic team Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger are the sole performance artists of the show, and have created the most moving work. Their Pink Tube, a massive piece of crochet that they add to as an ongoing performance, will continue to grow for as long as the couple is alive and able to work – when one of them dies, the other vows to unravel the piece. In this case, the inherent gender identity critique (the use of feminine processes and the color pink to interrogate queer masculinity) succeeds, perhaps because it is so personal. Rather than preaching a theory, the knit work Pink Tube and Untitled (Graves) – a pair of graves dug side by side, with a connecting tunnel through which the artists can hold hands – are simple expressions of love and connection. And what, after all, is knitting but a process of connection?

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