The Art of Crochet

Aze Ong expands into the possibilities of expressions in crochet.

Words Portia Placino
Photos courtesy of JL Diquit
March 7, 2025

Kaloob is Aze Ong’s solo exhibition of her single-piece installation, offered to the viewers, community, spirits, and the universe. Embracing the abstract nature of her works and explorations, she gave in to the impulse and flows of her crochet—expanding into the possibilities of expressions. The process is meditative; Ong will sit for hours on end manipulating her yarn until it forms into controlled explosions of color and pattern. The unpredictability of soft installations challenges the artist and viewers to embrace the pulse and knots embedded into them.

Ong continuously explores abstraction in her experimentations. Veering away from patterns and relentless counting found in crochet productions, the past 15 years were about giving into the moment’s impulse, the feelings and struggles experienced, and the growth as a person and artist. Instead of a creative capital, crochet transforms into an artistic medium lending into conceptual and contemporary moments—suspended within the possibilities rather than wrapped around in assigned meanings.

Crochet is often seen as craft or hobby, usually assigned to feminine labor. Creators can sell them, commission work, or make to pass the time. The practice can augment household income, and once in a while, marketed within the creative industries. Yet, beyond the usual, there is experimentation with the form—with thread and fabric. Textile has become a buzzword in the contemporary art scene, finally recognizing and establishing contemporary women’s work in the realm of fine arts. Ong, with 15 years’ experience, challenged the norm before the trend, traversing museums and galleries with her experimental work that often eludes definitions. Shedding meaning-making gives her works immersive layers, demanding the audience to experience and feel, rather than accept preconceived notions of being.

Yet, Kaloob is an offering, with women’s bodies for better or worse, presented to others in a patriarchal society. Women as children, as spouses, as mothers or expected mothers, as caregivers, as multiple roles—weighed down with expectations of freely offering the self. It is a gift to be able to give, but also a burden. Ong’s creations ride the tide of her personal experience and struggles, situated within a patriarchal society and a male-dominated art world. Though womanhood is not the sole take-off point and motivation, existing as a woman expected to offer herself as she is in her practice, thickens the narrative—especially in a traditionally female medium of crochet and textile.

Surviving and thriving in her journey, Ong looks into the sacred feminine. Similar to an overwhelming number of Filipinos, she was raised in a traditional religious setting, even going to a traditional religious school. Yet, her current practice leans toward spirituality—chanting, offering, creating—then translating it into the beat and rhythm of her large-scale crochet works. Though challenging to comprehend, spirituality and modernity were once intertwined as they touched on the intersections of artistic creation. In today’s contemporaneities—the layers of experimentation, labor conditions, social realities, material limitations, and spiritualities—are potencies in continuing artistic practice.

Kaloob by Aze Ong is on view at JCB Gallery, Philippine Women’s University from January 23 to February 28, 2025. For more information, email sfadjcbgallery@pwu.edu.ph.