Quilted Memory
Mixed media
xerox transfer, cotton and nylon fabric, ink
hand and machine sewn
6' x 8'
2006
This quilt is made up of four panels. The panel in the upper left corner contains floor plans of different houses that I have lived in overlaid on top of street maps of neighborhoods. There is a transparent layer of nylon with a xerox transfer of a face sewn on top. Each subsequent panel has a detail of one of the street maps of neighborhoods from the first panel. The streets are sewn in with black thread and street names are written in with ink. On top of each of these three panels, a transparent layer of nylon with a transfer of the same face in varying stages of clarity is sewn on top.
This quilt/map lies partially in representation of real-life and partially in representation of memory. By inhabiting this hybrid space, it creates a sense of disjunction, where one feels that they are in multiple places at once–not quite here, but not quite there either. It creates a sense of place without a sense of this place actually existing anywhere in the world. It is a representation of the world we carry with us, the past that creates a framework of reference of who we are. It also represents safety and warmth, the things we hold onto that comfort and shelter us, much like a quilt that we wrap around ourselves.
