Don't be surprised if the 'Happy Man' statue at the entrance to Langham Place in Mong Kok is wearing a pair of colourful knitted trousers next time you visit. Knit graffiti artist Magda Sayeg is in town with her bag of woolly tricks.
Knit graffiti - also called 'yarn bombing' as it involves knitting and crocheting - took off in 2005 after the Texas native knitted a piece for the door handle of her Houston boutique, Raye.
'I saw a need for knit or crochet - soft material - out on the hard surfaces of the urban landscape,' says Sayeg, while sewing pieces together for her 'I Knit MK' exhibition in Mong Kok.
It attracted so much positive attention from the neighbourhood that she started knitting more for her surroundings. A crafty and warmer cousin of graffiti emerged, and Sayeg was soon noticed by the local media.
She started 'Knitta, Please' that same year, dedicated to spreading her 'guerilla' knitting. Now her work can be found wrapping unexpected objects from street signs, light poles, parking meters and fire hydrants to bricks on the Great Wall near Beijing and a statue's leg in Paris.
'To me it is interesting to have something that's so closely associated with the feminine side of women and putting it out into the world of graffiti, which is so closely associated with men,' says Sayeg.
