Artist is in Bentonville knitting together world’s largest American flag

By Paul Petitte

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    BENTONVILLE, Arkansas (KHBS) — New York contemporary artist Dave Cole is in Northwest Arkansas over the 4th of July to knit together the stars and stripes.

“Knitting has been part of my practice for 25 years now,” he said. “It’s a really accessible medium and I think art can be accessible and also be good and smart and complicated, but also be uncynical and fun.”

Cole has had plenty of fun over his prominent artistic career. Some of his work is in the Smithsonian. He’s known worldwide for his interest in patriotism and nostalgia. This week, he was invited to the Momentary in Bentonville to create a grand display of the American flag.

“I have always loved to scale and playing with scale and I am also a big fan of materials and taking the material and pushing them beyond what they are used to doing. Using craft store felt to do some monumental scale projects just seemed like a great idea,” Cole said.

Cole said he’s purposely waiting until Independence Day to complete his patriotic project. And everyone is invited.

“On the 4th, around 7pm, we are going to gather back around and finish off the flag and set it up for display and gather at the Tower bar here at the Momentary for a 4thof July celebration and watch the fireworks from the tower bar,” he said.

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