The focus is on the social and political implications of knitting, crocheting and lace making, best exemplified by Cat Mazza’s wonderful Nike Blanket Petition. A massive rendition of the famous swoosh made by combining individually knitted “petitions,” the finished blanket will be carried to the sneaker giant’s headquarters as a collective protest against its factories’ sweatshop conditions.

Many artists take novel approaches to conventional methods. Dave Cole’s The Knitting Machine (seen here on videotape) turns telephone poles into giant needles; by contrast, Althea Merback knits miniscule clothes from silk thread using intravenous medical wire in lieu of needles.

Unorthodox materials abound; a partial list includes currency, chocolate, porcelain, fiber optics and car parts. Some of the most interesting works are poetic in nature. Elana Herzog’s deconstructed wall carpet, for example, looks like a moth-eaten remnant stapled onto the wall so obsessively that the staples appear suturelike in the process. Barbara Zucker’s rubber cascade of cut forms patterned after the facial wrinkles of an aging friend similarly locates beauty in decay. Like the exhibition itself, such works serve as a powerful reminder that “fiber arts” have come a long, long way since ’70s macramé. — Jane Harris

Also see Around Town: "Thread alert."