alex wilensky interview

Interview by Alex Kasel

Photography and Editing by Alex Kasel

“I’m going to try and answer very truthfully and not be like oh, that sounds so corny"

When did you start crocheting?
Almost two years ago. I’ve always loved clothing; I think I started refusing to let my parents dress me when I was four years old. Or at least they tell me that I was like, nope you don’t get to make this decision for me, haha. And then over the pandemic I found out that my friend Mia could crochet, and I was like oh my god, you have to teach me how to do that, because being able to make my own clothes was something I really wanted to do. She taught me one stitch to begin with and then it just took off from there. I don’t think I’ve gone a day without doing it since, honestly.

Did you expect it to become something you loved so much?
Yeah. I mean, maybe not this much, I didn’t expect to be selling pieces or making as big of projects as I do. But I definitely knew I was going to love it; I loved it before I even started; it was something I knew I needed to know how to do.

Being interested in fashion since you were young, did you experiment with any other mediums growing up?
I would hand-sew a lot of stuff. When I was younger I used to make simple little two-piece stuffed animals. But I actually just got a sewing machine for my birthday, so hopefully I have a chance soon to sit down and figure out how that works. It would open up so many other parts of fashion for me. Crocheting is amazing but it takes a very long time since you’re literally making your own fabric. So, sewing would be really cool and then maybe I could mix the two.

That would be awesome. Right, crochet takes a super long time. Is that a drawback for you?
I actually enjoy the time it takes. It makes me appreciate what I’ve just created. It really does make it so special when you are doing every little stitch yourself and watching it come together, having the idea leave your head and come together right in front of you. It also makes me appreciate other crocheters that I see as well as all forms of art, because these things take a lot of time and a lot of love. My least favorite part about though is that I think people really don’t understand how time consuming it is. I saw a post recently from a girl who had crocheted a blanket, and people were asking her to sell it. And she basically said no because she had put two hundred hours into making it and spent $140 on yarn, so even if she had sold it for $2,000, that would still only be $9/hour for what she made. I think my least favorite part is that people don’t appreciate the time and the money it takes. As someone who crochets I feel like I can look at the work and really understand how long it took, what stitches were used, how it had to be put together. So I’ll see something listed for $500 dollars and understand why but a lot of people in the comments will be like yeah this is cute, but for $500 I don’t think so. It’s really frustrating. When I see comments like that I think, well, you sit down and try to make it, and see if you don’t also want to price it at $500! It kind of comes down to how no one really values labor, in the arts but in so many other industries as well.

Has “fast fashion” played a role in that?
Oh 110%. People expect to get something that’s trendy, and cute, and that they can wear all the time, at the drop of a hat, for five dollars, and it’ll arrive in two days. They never have to step outside of the house.

Who are some of your creative inspirations?
First has to be @mega_mikaela. She’s insane. She crochets and knits a lot but she also incorporates metal pieces into her work. If there’s any artist whose levels of creativity and skill I aspire to, it’s her. Also linmick, of course. I’ve been following her since I got Instagram in 2017. I feel like knitting and crocheting have become more popular over the past few years, but she’s been doing it for a long time. It’s been cool to see her progress and succeed.

These are both people you found through Instagram; how do you think social media is changing the creative community?
Oh my gosh. For good and for bad. I see so much work all the time. Your algorithm knows what you want so I’m constantly finding new artists who knit and crochet, and it exposes me to ideas I’ve never seen before. There’s people who live on the other side of the world that I’ve connected with just by sharing my art. And they teach me something as well. As for the negatives, we’re exposed to incredible stuff all the time, and I think there is a fixation on putting a price or type of value judgment on what we see. You don’t have to own everything you like. You don’t even have to consume it, you know? There’s so much to see that you pretty much can’t see it all, so we should focus on appreciating the things we do see instead of spreading our attention so thin. It’s too easy to look at something and barely give it consideration. It takes away from the process. And on the other end of it, you don’t know the full story. You might not know what machines someone used, or how many people helped them, or if the timeline that they post on lines up with when they made things. That’s the problem that everyone has with social media, you just don't know what’s going on behind the scenes.

What do you aim to embody within your work?
I’ve always really enjoyed clothing that doesn’t take on any sort of form without the wearer. A lot of my pieces are really delicate, and if they were on the ground they would just look like a pile of string. It makes a person necessary for the clothing to really be appreciated. I like how they join together in that moment when a someone puts it on and it looks special in a way it only can on them. I love how my pieces change on different bodies and how people choose to wear them.

It’s obvious that you really enjoy the personal expression aspect of fashion and not just the artistic aspect.
I think they go hand-in-hand, a lot of the time.

What other forms does creative practice take in your life?
I write a lot. Usually on my phone even though I really prefer writing on paper. Technology can be helpful because sometimes I can’t write or type as fast as I’m thinking so I’ll do a voice memo. I write a lot of poetry and essays. Mostly about me and my life. It’s very literal and often stream of consciousness. A lot of the time I think I write to cope. It also helps me understand things. I'm a really emotional person and I tend to get tunnel vision especially when I’m in the situation I’m currently writing about. It's grounding. I started keeping a journal probably around fifth grade. And then I started tattooing almost perfectly a year ago today. I stick and poke specifically. As you can tell, I love working with my hands. That’s how I learn best, doing it myself. Tattoos are another really cool form of self expression. Especially here in New York there are so many amazing artists, you can get anything tattooed. Anything your mind can imagine and beyond that. I didn’t even know tattoos could look a certain way until I moved here. One of my friends Liam who’s done about five of my tattoos, I’d always tell him how in awe I was of his work and he encouraged me to try it, even though at the time I didn’t really draw. He gave me all the starting tips. Plus, I love tattoos so much, and if I gained that skill I wouldn’t have to pay for them anymore, just do them myself or trade with other artists.

How do you value your creative community and what has your experience been like finding it in New York?
Like any community, there’s good and there’s bad. In the tattoo community there’s certain people who have taught me what maybe I shouldn’t do, and other people who really showed me the sacredness of it and the importance behind the tattoo and who’s doing it. I’ve met so many amazing artists here and it’s taught me that a lot of people need to stop being so humble! Some of my friends who are the best artists are so humble. Most of my writing community is online. In every art form, everyone in my community has taught me that there are no boundaries to what you can do. We all have something to offer and there’s never going to come a day when everything’s been done; there’s always something new to do or a different way to do it. You can keep learning and keep getting better. Moving to New York really showed me that. I am from LA originally, I grew up there for fourteen years and was lucky enough to be exposed to a lot of good art and creative people in that environment. When I moved to Asheville there was still good art, but a lot less people and more limited kinds of art, it felt like. I moved to New York out of high school; I’ve been here for two years now, and that world kind of opened up again. I’ve met so many people and seen so many different things, and every time that I see something I love I’m reminded why I want to keep going and being in this community. There’s so much left to create.

Keep going. That’s a great sentiment. Do you have any idea where you want to go next?
Hopefully, in terms of learning, I’ll be going to art school in the next two to three years. I’m a sophomore now at Brooklyn College, and my plan is to take a break after the fall to work for a year or two to save up before I apply to schools, and scholarships, too, because art school is expensive. There’s so much machinery, especially for knitting that I would love to get my hands on. Even something simple like mannequins and models that I don’t have access to now would open up a lot for me. Short term, Ive been working on a project that I’ve been working on since last May and it’s almost done. I would also like to have a website soon. I’m selling in Depop right now and it’s working well, I like it better than when I was selling on Etsy, but ut would be nice to have a site where I get more of the profits. That’s the plan for right now.