Knitting Superhero: Mark Newport

If you are looking for a knitting superhero, Mark Newport may be it... or at least he's got the costumes knit.  These lifesize superhero costumes as well as prints that use the act of knitting as subject matter will be on display this summer at the Arizona State University Art Museum Nelson Fina Arts Center this summer.  

Newport learned to knit from his grandmother as a youngster, but didn't keep up with it.  More recently he decided to pick up the needles again so he could use knitting in his teaching of textiles and artwork.  His wife taught him to cast on and he's been stitching away since.

Newport began with his series of knitted superhero costumes with Batman in 2003. Long fascinated with the imagery of the superhero, he had been making quilts and samplers from comic book covers, embellishing the heroes and softening them with embroidery.  "I was interested in the image of a hero and how that informs males about what their roles and personalities can be. Also how [these heroic images] prepare them for life as an adult."

Mark's work is about providing safety and protection -- the superhero as ultimate (usually male) protector, but also combined with the less active or public nurturing protection of the (usually female) handknit blanket or sweater.  Says Newport, "I think the knitting sums up all of those stereotypical images of women sitting quietly -- of accumulated quiet action --and when I thought about my memories of my grandmother and mother knitting they seemed so self contained and protected by the process that I imagined the knitting as a kind of forcefield -- a way to generate saftey and comfort for themselves and those they cared for."  Newport believes that the quiet protectiveness summoned by the image of knitting is the perfect foil for a costume meant for "a man of action."

In addition to the superhero suits themselves, a number of prints with knitting as a subject will be on view.  He Knew He Could Help shows a man knitting surrounded by sort of a force field. The caption reads, "He knew that if he could just finish this, he could help." This evokes a potent feeling of the generalized powerlessness many feel in contemporary society. As a knitter, his Sisyphean task is clear -- an endless number of stitches. The uselessness of his usefulness. "Why knit when you can buy a sweater?" What does knitting as a subject summon up in the viewer?  Says Newport, "These prints are meant to draw on the perfomative nature of the [superhero] suits - even hanging on the wall one wonders what the guy does in these things, how do they work? So I am trying to mix photographic images of me in the suits or making the suits with comic book like spaces, action and narratives to bring my heroes and their struggles back to their sources. I see the prints as making the process more visible and allowing me to play with narratives and other elements that the suits suggest but do not spell out."

Mark Newport's work will be on display throughout the summer, but if you want a chance to meet the man in action, he'll be at the gallery knitting and talking at the museum's Family Fun Day on July 16.