This story was brought to my attention through “This American Life”, the NPR show hosted by Ira Glass. The story was about two men from Wisconsin who attempted to escape from prison. One of the men came to the conclusion that nylon is used in climbing ropes and dental floss is made of nylon, so why not make a rope using dental floss? The rope that they made was wove intricately using a crazy amount of dental floss. They used it the day they attempted to break out of prison and although they were caught, the rope they made worked like a charm.
The aspect of the story that intrigues me the most as an artist is the innovation of this basic, one purpose material transforming into something else when massed out. This idea is something that I see in most of my artwork as a recurring theme and I love that people who wouldn’t typically be known as anything but failed escape artists have created something so inspiring.