Immaterial: Blankets and Quilts

Camille Dungay | Perspectives | 17th July 2024

The quilts made in Gee’s Bend in southern USA challenge conventional thinking about art. Quilters were not trying to make art works, just functional objects using worn out scraps of fabric, As they saw it, they made “pretty” (patterned) quilts or “ugly” (asymmetric) quilts. Further, unlike most artworks, these quilts were often made by a group of quilters, not a single artist. Eventually, though, they were hung in art museums, bringing the realisation that quilts, like art, can carry stories. “A quilt has many, many lives”.