We tend to barricade ourselves in our own worlds, avoiding eye contact. What is intimacy? Why are we so frightened of it?

 

There is a certain courage and presence that a person must bring to a face-to-face interaction that is different from all other forms of interaction. Attempting to see eye-to-eye with someone is all but impossible. How can you really know what he’s thinking? How will she react? What boundaries mustn’t I cross? How far do our minds extend into one another?

 

I’m fascinated by the experience of being human and everything it entails. I’m terrified of the reality of being human and everything it entails. I wake up in the morning, ecstatic to be alive. I go through my day, communicating only through text, syllables, and nervous laughter – shallow and risk-free. No surprises, please.

 

Face-to-face interactions are complicated. The things that can happen when two people get together in the same space are infinite. What do the spaces between bodies look like? They are so much more nuanced than a text message or a phone call could ever be. Tension, pressure, teamwork, spontaneity.

 

I seek to elicit, through the wearers of my work, an awareness of the physical interconnectivity between people. With the interwoven structure of knitting, I introduce the warmth that is non-existent in so many interactions.

Through physical contact you not only start to understand another person, you experience him or her.

 

Photography: Eleanor Epstein, Nina Raizel

Models: Maddie Cann, Nina Raizel