Safety Yellow woman

Safety Yellow Woman
2020 – 2021
handknitted wool garment, adult size
photography by Malcolm King

Safety Yellow Woman was a project that began following Melbourne’s extended lockdown in 2020. The handknitted garment is a response to the social anxiety and isolation experienced during the year, and visibly gives form to the practice of social distancing through the lengthened sweater sleeves that measure 1.5 metres each – making this a wearable if impractical garment.

Beyond the humorous visual metaphor of a socially-distant sweater, the garment also reflects on the experience of anti-Asian racism experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic by conflating the idea of ‘yellow’ with both hazard tape as well as the racially charged profiling of people of East-Asian descent (‘yellow peril/yellow invasion’). The resulting photographs, featuring the knitter of the sweater posed in a variety settings, captures some of this tension, and reflects on the experience of social stigma and isolation due to one’s racialised identity.

This work was first commissioned by Diversity Arts Australia as part of the project I Am Not a Virus, and was exhibited online. It was also included in the group exhibition Acute Actions: Responses to I Am Not a Virus at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art from 15 April — 15 May 2021. In 2022, it was included in the Victorian Craft Awards, where the work won the People’s Choice Award.

The yarn for this project has been provided by Fancy Tiger Crafts.

Press & additional links

Acute Actions: Responses to I Am Not a Virus (installation view), 2021,4A @ 101-111 William Street, Sydney. Right: Andrea Srisurapon, Covid Clean, 2021, photographic print. Left: Sophia Cai, Safety Yellow Woman, 2020-2021, handknitted wool garment – adult size, yarn support provided by Fancy Tiger Crafts. Courtesy the artists. Photo: Kai Wasikowski