Patrick Carroll

Venue: Former Nicol Coffee Shop

Curator’s Text: Title :《Memoriam/追悼》

In December of 2019 Patrick Carroll bought a Studio sk-560, a domestic, hand-operated knitting machine from the 1970s. Two months later, his father, who had suffered for years from a neurodegenerative illness, self-administered end-of-life medication at his home, surrounded by family. Three weeks after that, much of California shut down due to COVID. In a home shared with two friends at the foot of the Box Springs Mountains in Riverside, saddled with the public grief of pandemic and the private grief of the death of his father, while working towards in MFA in creative writing, Patrick learned to use the machine he’d bought, and began his practice of relentless production of unique garments and art works, each with words or phrases knitted into its structure. Emerging from historical study, Patrick’s practice draws from many sources to build a resonant poetic universe that considers labor value, fantasy (via the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, Shakespeare, Dolly Parton, Pokémon), grief, gender and silhouette, and religious discourses of virtue and sin.

Patrick used Instagram as a main tool for sharing his work with the world and it was here that I came across Patrick's works and began to follow. I found the dissonance between the immediacy of the social media platform and the very intimate images of him and the topics he touched upon to be very poignant. Patrick creates in the shared images an entire world which seems to be made within the 4 walls of his private space. Manually knitting on his own clothes that carry his words and later taking photos of himself wearing them.

Presenting the work of Carroll as part of the event intends to offer the visitors an invitation to expand the perspective on textile art and invite them to dive deeper into the topics Patrick is dealing with as well as the way he sees them.
This exhibition is Patrick’s first solo exhibition and acts as a sort of retrospective of these past few years in which Patrick has built the body of work alongside experiencing loss and realignment.

Guest Curator : Arieh Rosen | Cooperation : Kornit Digital

Artist Profile: Patrick Carroll
Patrick Carroll

Patrick Carroll (b. 1990) Lives works in Los Angeles, California USA.
He graduated in 2012 from Princeton University with a BA in Comparative Literature. After years of focusing on his writing he started his MFA in creative writing at the University of Riverside, California from which he graduated in 2021.
Patrick started to develop his artistic practice and fully focus on it in 2020 and share it via social media. He has since presented his work at a solo installation as part of the JW Anderson Men’s SS23 / Women’s Resort 23 show, in June 2022. Patrick has also recently participated in the group exhibition Any Distance between Us at RISD Museum.
As well as group exhibitions at the Da Silva Gallery and the Flower Head.