I Have Been a Mystery to Myself

In this show, hand knit garments are an embodiment of anxiety and dissociation. Knit clothing becomes a portal to the self and emotions when they feel out of reach.

“For most of my life, my feelings have been hidden in my body, confusing and hard to navigate. Where do we go when we are dissociated? How do we come into re-alignment with ourselves? With emphasis on garments as simple forms, this exhibition welcomes us back into our bodies. The show aims to locate emotions as a way to ground the self. By being quiet with ourselves and exploring the connections between feelings, the body, and the self, we slowly can make sense of our place in the world.”

Olivia Hochstadt (she/her) is a fiber artist, making clothing out of yarn she spins and dyes with plants she forages for. In 2021, while pursuing a BA in Art History and Spanish at Colby College, she was awarded the first-ever Colby Global Fellowship to study knitwear and wool in Shetland, the Faroe Islands, and Chile. Since 2021, Olivia has worked with the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition to teach art history courses in Maine’s prisons and curate exhibitions of art made by Maine’s incarcerated artists. Olivia teaches knitting, crochet, and beading at various art centers around Boston.