Minerva Skyttä

Minerva Skyttä’s graduate collection consists of knit structures she has designed. Skyttä has re-attached the knit back to the machine and knitted it in different directions. The shapes of the garments are sculptural and evolve through the process. Her goal is to create something that is not possible to replicate. "My knits are born in the moment and express my current feelings and “mood". I approach knitting as a form of painting, where I master the technique perfectly and reserve the right to creative freedom, Skyttä says." For the collection, Skyttä drew inspiration from the correspondence of her relatives in the early 20thcentury in Kymenlaakso in South-East of Finland, and China, where some of her family members were located. "There were several authors in the letters, and the letters and memories were passed on from generation to generation in my family. Understandably, the letters hold a lot of emotional value for me; they tell the forgotten story of my relatives and paint images of what my relatives’ lives might have been like." In her collection, Skyttä examines the nature of the letters and tries to replicate their appearance, handwriting, smell, fragility, folds, feel of the material, passage of time, stains, sun fading, yellowing of ink, and written content in the collection.