Alexandria Masse: “It’s Fun to Make a Statement”

In a collage of photos, a young woman variously sits, rests, or crochets on a large red-and-white tapestry that is covered with text. The caption on the Instagram post declares: This piece is a comment on freedom, bodily autonomy, informed consent, and how women’s rights are arduously fought for — for years.

The work is called Birth Control Tapestry, and it is the viral project of Alexandria Masse, 25, a Canadian textile and fibre artist who primarily works with crochet and yarn, creating large, sculptural pieces and tapestries. This time, she is crocheting — word for word — the information sheet that comes with her birth control pills. So far, Alexandria has worked her way through one-sixth of the text; she has used 77 balls of yarn and created a tapestry that weighs about 17 pounds (almost 8 kilograms). She hopes to finish the project in four years.

While the tapestry has drawn comments from people who have suffered from the side effects of birth control, Alexandria’s main purpose is to start a conversation around the importance of women’s access to reproductive healthcare. 

“I wanted to create a project that encapsulated this time in history. In the States, you see abortions banned, and in many countries, governments are defunding reproductive healthcare to the point where it’s very hard to access it. We’re literally having the same conversations as we did a hundred years ago.” 

Using her online platform (she has more than 273,000 followers on Instagram) to convey a political message is a new approach for Alexandria, who is known for her colourful, often whimsical creations. However, she sees an overarching feminist theme in all her art. 

“I think that just by working with craft and fibre, you are approaching themes of feminism.”  

Falling into art 

Alexandria comes from Windsor, Ontario, a small, working-class Canadian city located right across the river from Detroit, where many people make their living in car manufacturing. Her mother is a teacher, and her father is a career politician. Although they didn’t work in the creative field, they love the arts, and on family vacations, they always made an effort to visit galleries. 

“As a child, I spent a lot of time with my grandmas, who were very good at craft — they were the artists in my family. My grandmothers were both immigrants, and the first thing my Cantonese popo bought when she moved to Canada was a sewing machine. It was really impressive to see her create something out of thin air, and I basically learned sewing from watching her.” 

Alexandria loved making her own clothes, and she thought she would work in the fashion industry. Becoming a fibre artist, she says, was something she kind of fell into. Alexandria was doing her bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in Textiles/Fashion in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the East Coast of Canada, when Covid hit. At the time, she was taking a weaving class, and when classes were cancelled or moved online, she was left with all this yarn in her hands. She was living alone and felt isolated. 

“I was just like, OK, the one thing I do have is a bunch of crochet hooks. So I used all this extra time and the lack of a social life to just create things and join an online community. And that really helped me.” 

Alexandria started posting her work on social media and sharing her process, and people started reaching out to her with commissions and job opportunities. 

“I never woke up one day wanting to be an artist; I knew I wanted to do a creative job, but the job kind of created itself. A lot of people write or dance to express themselves, and I feel the best way I can express myself is through the things I create. That’s my voice, that's my way to communicate with the world.”  

Making it big

A lot of Alexandria’s work is colourful, sculptural and massive in scale — which is something she loves. 

“When you think of textiles and craft, you often think of small things, and it’s really fun to just completely turn that on its head, to create something that’s just so absurdly large and make a statement.” 

Even though Alexandria also sews and knits, crochet is her main medium because it offers a strong, fixed structure and works up quickly. Alexandria is also very particular about colours, and she mostly dyes her own wool. Her soft sculptures are formed piece by piece, reminiscent of building blocks. 

Many of her works explore themes of personal identity, and she draws inspiration from everyday life and the small things. She has, for example, created a series based on insects she found in her backyard, taking something small and rigid and turning it into something big, soft, and huggable. 

“I'm also very much inspired by my childhood and the way I perceived the world as a kid; how everything was so big and fantastical and bright and gorgeous. I find nostalgia is a really fun thing to experiment with, and just having childlike wonder is a big theme in my work.”

Alexandria’s East Asian heritage and her experiences as a second-generation immigrant also influence her work. Her mother’s family is from Hong Kong, and that culture is very prevalent in her life and family traditions. Her grandparents owned a Chinese restaurant, and she often makes pieces based on food and places of gathering. 

“I find that the dyeing process is a lot like cooking, so I like to think it shows up in my work that way, too. I often use a steamer when I’m dyeing, and when I'm steaming these little folded-up crochet pieces, they kind of look like dumplings! Or when I’m throwing yarn in a pot, it feels like I’m cooking noodles. It’s quite literal in that sense, which is funny.” 

Independent & commercial

Making a living as a young artist is not a breeze. For Alexandria, it has only been possible by paving her own way in social media. Besides creating independent art and showing her work in galleries, she is creating content, making videos and doing partnerships with companies. 

“Being a full-time artist is quite a luxury: the only full-time artists I know my age in Canada are ones who have access to previous wealth. So, essentially, without doing the ‘artfluencer’ stuff online, it would not be possible for me to be an artist. But I actually find commercial work very refreshing — it’s nice to work with structure and a deadline every once in a while.” 

Working in this field also means constantly challenging the preconceived notions of fibre and textiles. 

“I think a lot of people see it as a lesser artform, which is frustrating and sad. There’s such a rich history, and I think it’s beautiful that these crafts are passed down through the matriarchal system. But I think people are respecting textile art more and more, and it has been cool lately to see more of it included in fine art exhibitions.” 

There are many female artists who have influenced Alexandria's work, such as the American Barbara Kruger, who works a lot with big, bright text — Alexandria loves the kind of artworks that feel like little snapshots of our time. The US fibre artist Kendall Ross, who goes by the name I’d Knit That, is of a similar age to Alexandria, and she is an important peer support whom Alexandria often reaches out to when faced with a creative problem. Alexandria also loves fashion; one of her all-time favourites being the English designer Zandra Rhodes, whom she met at an event they were both speaking at. 

“I’m so inspired by the way she goes about living her life and keeping the fun in everything. It’s so easy to get doom and gloom about the world, especially when you’re an artist making artwork about political messages.”

“Fun” — that is actually the word that comes up most often in Alexandria’s stories, whether she is talking about her childhood or her love for bold, bright colours. It is no surprise, then, that it is also the part she loves most about being an artist. 

“I think it’s so important to make things that bring joy to the world.” 

TEXT: MAIJA KANGASLUOMA 

PHOTOS: ASHLEY CLINE-PARÉ

This feature was first published in Laine Let’s Crochet! Issue 2.