Today Sue's quilt from the OurStory: Human Rights Stories in Fabric exhibit returned home. After nearly 6 years of travel to exhibit venues around the US, it is like getting reacquainted with a friend you haven't seen in years. Remembering the creative processes and techniques used (and experimented with) to create a piece of fiber art and realizing - oh yeah, that's how I did that!
This piece is called Women's Voices Matter and represents the Women's March in Washington DC on January 21. 2017 after the inauguration of the former President. While that march had a particular focus, it's sad to say that all it represents is just as relevant today as it was 6 years ago, if not more so.
Above is a detail shot of the center portion of the quilt. The background is quilted with stitch writing made up of two phrases - "This is what democracy looks like." and "Respect my existence or expect my resistance." To make the Washington Monument, I got an image of the constitution from the Library of Congress and had it printed on fabric by Spoonflower. (digitally printed fabric) The posters are representative of those seen that day on the mall.
Above is a close-up of the stitching under the image - you might need to enlarge the photo to read it more easily. But what it says is "Women's rights are human rights. We march to protect our civil rights, reproductive rights, voting rights, right to education and environmental justice, workers' rights, right to freedom of religion, LGBTQIA rights, and disability rights, and affordable healthcare for all." Wow. How many of these rights have improved in the last six years, and how many have lost ground?
The OurStory exhibit and book was curated and authored by Susanne Miller Jones. You can learn more about Suzanne and the exhibit on her website.
No comments:
Post a Comment