It was Harvey Milk’s birthday on May 22nd, and in celebration, the Castro neighborhood here in San Francisco hosts Windows for Harvey, a celebration in which local merchants host art installations inspired by Harvey and his legacy. This year’s theme was “equality,” and the Castro Fountain asked if I would create an installation for their window.
I sketched and envisioned A LOT of different concepts before deciding on this one. A big part of me wanted to make a bunch of smaller items to fill the window, so that people might be more willing to purchase a piece of it at a lower price. But ultimately, I felt like the big triple scoop ice cream cones would make a bigger and more fun visual impact. They are over 5 feet tall!
This is from my artist statement/description posted in the window:
“For Harvey Milk’s birthday, I wanted to crochet a treat that was not only sweet but also highlighted Milk’s legacy and fight for equality. Both crochet and ice cream can have nostalgic qualities that take many of us back to a more innocent time, perhaps a time before we became aware of our differences, or that difference could ever be seen as a bad thing. Milk encouraged us to embrace each other, whether we are pink, yellow, or green, and to always give each other hope.”
Big crochet is super floppy and a little heavy, so I backed both pieces in thick foam board. Manda helped me out a lot by cutting the board, since I was so short on time.
Today is the last day you can view it. I think I’m supposed to take it down tonight! Sorry I wasn’t able to blog about it sooner! If anyone local to SF is interesting in purchasing it, you can always email me. I still haven’t quite figured out the pricing, but I’d sell them together or as individual ice cream cones. Manda wants to keep them, but our house already has a lot of crochet :).
