In Garfield Place, the two bronze statues by Charles Henry Nihaus of former Ohio-born US presidents James A. Garfield and William Henry Harrison have been yarn bombed.
Yarn bombing, for the uninitiated, is a form of street art that uses knit/crochet objects illegally placed in prominent public space. The term “bombing” arises from graffiti tagging lingo. Unlike graffiti spray paint, yarn bombing does not deface property.
Graffiti tagging is currently viewed by anthropologists as a ritualistic form of masculine rite of passage (for a particular type of teenager). Yarn bombing practitioners, however, self-consciously categorize their practice under traditional femininity (due its materials and the nature of “wrapping” objects instead of scarring or marking them).
The rhetoric of street art in part revolves around claims of reclaiming public space. It is hence essential to this anonymous yarn bomber that Garfield Place, formerly known as Piatt Park, was established in 1817 and is the oldest park in Cincinnati.
– A.C. Frabetti
so glad someone got good photos of this! saw it the other day and my pics turned out terrible.
worth mentioning: there is a history of this in Yellow Springs, Oh [http://yarnbombing.com/tag/yellow-springs] but I have only recently seen it here.