On Monday night, over 20 students yarn bombed the Dolores statue in Joslyn Plaza in hope to bring awareness to the importance of voting.
Yarn bombing is a form of street art developed in Europe in the early 2000s.The art form came to the U.S. shortly after, creating a new channel of protest.
It consists of covering anything from military tanks in Copenhagen to guns in Bali in knitted, crocheted and woven pieces. Pepperdine students put their own twist on the craft by knitting a cape of yarn for the new Dolores statue.
The students are all enrolled in the course “Politics of Revolution and Protest,” taught by Candice Ortbals, associate professor of political science. In this course, they discuss different forms of revolutions, uprisings and protests.
As a part of the class, the students have to participate in an experience similar to those they are studying. The students have the option of interviewing past or current protesters or actually participating in a form of protest all their own.
“I never imagined I’d be doing anything like this,” senior Jessica Thompson said.
Students chose the latter, but the decision wasn’t made overnight. They said many weeks of preparation go into planning and executing a successful yarn bombing.
The star-spangled cape Dolores sports took over two months to knit.
The process first began months ago as the students decided the extent of the yarn bombing and the pieces necessary to cover the area. They began to gather the yarn and other pieces at local thrift stores.
Totaling more than $100 spent on yarn and cloth, the group’s preparation created enough pieces to cover Dolores and her neighboring trees.
The students learned firsthand what it takes to stage a protest.
“It was important for the students to do because they learned firsthand about a new form of protest, and they realized the amount of time and level of coordination it takes to put on even a small protest action,” Ortbals said.
